At the Mercy of the World
by spider-lily08
Summary: Adrian Hunter had one secret after another lurking behind her emerald green eyes. The old world made her tough enough to survive the new one, but nothing from either world could have prepared her for Daryl Dixon. Slowly but surely the layers are peeled back to reveal the person each never thought they could be. Zombies, survival, and love. What more could a girl ask for? Daryl/OC
1. Enter Adrian Hunter

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Short ad sweet.**_

_**AN: So this is a new story I have been working on. And it's been going pretty smoothly so far. I have had complete and total tunnel vision on The Walking Dead so I've decided to try my hand at it. I have quite a number of chapters under my belt on this story. Now I learned my lesson about about posting everything I have so I'm only gonna post a chapter or two a week. This chapter is short but the others are longer, I promise. I hope you guys enjoy.**_

Chapter 1

It had been about a month since the world went to shit.

At first it was just a few crazy news stories about people eating their animals alive or that some neighbor ate their neighbor. No one believed stories like that. It just wasn't within the capability of the human brain to accept something like that.

But then a few stories turned into many and then it was all over the news. Pretty soon it turned into a pandemic. It was said that if you were bitten you got a insanely high fever and then you died.

Only you didn't stay dead.

You came back and started eating other people who in turn burned out and came back to feed on more people. It was a never ending circle and nobody could explain it. Most people tried to get out of major cities and find someplace safe, but by then, it was too late.

It was well past midnight and the full moon was high in the star speckled night sky. The two figures hiding at the edge of the forest were trying to be quiet and sure of any movement they made.

It had to have been at least six weeks since the major start of the pandemic and the two people trying to play ninja had been wholed up at their current camp for four out of those six weeks.

"I don't like this plan, Adrian. We have just enough water to last us until the moon isn't so bright. Those people are a little too trigger happy for my taste." a young man whispered to his companion.

"Just enough isn't going to cut it. We need water and this is the closest water source there is. That damn lake is big enough for them to share. Sure we could play nice and try to ask, but these days being polite isn't exactly high on the moral list." Adrian whispered back to the young man.

There was a camp not far from where they were standing made up of an RV and a bunch of tents. Most of the fires were out and everyone seemed to be asleep. Everyone except for the old man sitting on top of the RV with binoculars and a rifle. And on a night like tonight, it was damn easy getting caught at sneaking around.

"Alright. Hand me all of the canteens. I'm gonna go down there alone." Adrian said turning to her partner. "Are you insane?! You can't go down there alone! They could shoot you on accident." the boy said.

The woman quickly turned her head and glared at him. A beam of moonlight caught her face just right and made her glare look beautiful and haunting at the same time. "Kale, give me the damn canteens. I'm smaller than you and less likely to be seen. And if they shoot me, well better me than you." Adrian hissed at him.

Kale reluctantly gave up his four canteens and walked his small companion stealthily crawl off out into the open.

"They're back." called out the younger of the two redneck Dixon brothers. Everyone within ear shot stopped what they were doing and looked up at him. The so called "leader" of the camp, an ex-cop named Shane, walked in his direction. "What do you mean "they're back"?

"Them damn creepers, whoever the hell they are." Daryl Dixon said lazily pointing in the direction of the vast amount of wooded area. "Found fresh tacks while I was out huntin'. Bout a quarter mile out. It was both of 'em this time." he said.

"Well how close did they get?" asked the long haired brunette named Lori. "Not as close as last time. This time they stopped about a hundred yards out." he said walking towards his and his brothers tent.

Daryl sat down on a poor excuse for a log and started skinning his days catch. "So how close did they really get?" asked the older Dixon, Merle. "Like I said, about a hundred yards. Must not have wanted to get too close last night.

Easy to be spotted on a full moon. Besides, they were headed for the water hole again." Daryl said as he started gutting a rabbit.

Two days later, Lori's young son Carl went missing.


	2. Daryl meets The Creeper

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Short ad sweet.**_

_**AN: So this is a new story I have been working on. And it's been going pretty smoothly so far. I have had complete and total tunnel vision on The Walking Dead so I've decided to try my hand at it. I have quite a number of chapters under my belt on this story. Now I learned my lesson about about posting everything I have so I'm only gonna post a chapter or two a week. I hope you guys enjoy.**_

Chapter 2

Adrian Hunter had been hunting since dawn and it was getting to close to dark to stay out much longer but she hadn't really found anything to her liking. Sure she picked up whatever edible nuts and berries she spotted, but what she had been hoping for was a few juicy rabbits or, if she was lucky, a fat ass deer. Her and Kale could use the meat.

She knew the camp a few miles East of them had a hunter or two but they never seemed to hunt in the same areas. Adrian was keeping a close eye out on the somewhat soft ground for any kind of fresh animal tracks when she heard and unusual sound.

Adrian tilted her hear in the direction she had thought she had heard the sound to see if she heard it again. And sure enough she did. Adrian was never really one to jump head first into what could possibly be a dangerous situation so she stalked cautiously in the direction of the noise.

Equipped with a razor sharp machete, a sharp big game hunting knife, and a Genesis compound bow that she mostly used for hunting, Adrian came upon quite a sight. A young boy of no more than maybe eleven or twelve was in a somewhat small pine tree just out of reach of about three of those things that just refused to die.

How that kid got into that tree was a mystery to her. _'Must have spider-monkeyed his way up there._' Adrian thought to herself as she raised her bow and shot the first on in the head, which quickly drew the attention of the other two. Adrian had just enough time to knock another arrow and shoot a second one before she had to resort to Plan B. Use the machete.

Adrian retrieved her arrows and grabbed a few handfuls of leaves and cleaned off as much of the black goo off of her machete as possible. Sheathing her machete, Adrian looked up in the tree to see the little boy looking fearfully at her. He had shaggy dark brown or black hair and pale skin and his clothes were filthy.

"Are you okay up there sweetie?" she asked the boy as she leaned her bow at the base of the tree he was squirreled up in. "Yeah." the boy said breathing hard. "Are you hurt? Bit or scratched anywhere?" she asked looking up at him. "No. Who are you?" the boy asked. "My name is Adrian. And who are you?" Adrian said still talking softly as if she was talking to a scared child.

Adrian scuffed at herself at that thought. She was talking to a scared child.

After a minute of silence the boy finally answered. "Carl. My name is Carl." he finally said. "Are you one of the creepers Daryl talks about after he comes back from hunting?" Carl asked her. "A creeper am I?" Adrian said with a friendly smile. "You live at that camp a few miles away?" she asked as the question occurred to her. It could be dangerous for her if she brought the boy back herself.

"Yeah. Out there where that big lake is." Carl answered. "Daryl? Is he one of your hunters?" Adrian asked trying to get a little information from the little tree monkey. "Yeah. Him and his older brother, Merle. But neither one of them are very nice." he said causing Adrian to laugh at that last statement.

Adrian looked around her at the zombies as she liked to call them and sighed._ 'Well better here than closer to camp.'_ Adrian thought not liking her next task.

Looking back up at Carl, Adrian decided that she had no other choice than to bring him back to camp. "Let me take care of these things and we'll get you down from that tree and you can come back to my camp for the night." Adrian said taking off to pile up the zombies so she could burn them.

Adrian spent the next hour dragging and piling the heavy dead bodies of the zombies to the fire she had built. She had Carl jump down to her from the tree after he confessed to not knowing how to get down.

She had tried to prepare herself for the sudden weight of the boy but had collapsed to the ground anyway.

After getting up, Adrian grabbed her bow and Carl's hand and carefully headed back towards Kale and her camp.

After walking for about thirty minutes Carl and Adrian reached camp just as the sun was setting. "Kale. We got company so be nice. Carl, this is Kale Hagan, my partner. Kale, this here is Carl Grimes, my new little boyfriend." Adrian said smiling at the boy. "Ain't that right, Carl?" she laughed.

"He's from that campsite out there by the lake. What's he doin' here?" Kale asked standing from across the fire he had lit.

"Found him up a tree with three zombies trying to climb up to get him. Killed them and burned the bodies, per usual." she said leading Carl the to the fire and sit him down on a fallen log.

"Is that smoke again?" Shane asked seeing plumes of white smoke floating towards the sky. Daryl and Rick had been searching the woods for three days looking for Carl but after a whole day of heavy downpour Daryl had lost what few tracks he had had.

"Yeah. Second time in three days." Daryl said squinting against the harsh rays of the sun as he looked upwards.

"Maybe it's a camp fire?" Shane asked. "Nah. Too much smoke to be a camp fire. Somebody's burnin' somethin'." Daryl said looking back towards the ground. He had spotted some small tracks every now and then but they were too big to be Carl's.

After another hour Daryl finally got two sets of fresh tracks. One was the set he had seen off and on and another smaller set of tracks that could have been Carl's. It was shortly after noon but the day was still sizzling hot but the shade of the forest helped a little.

A short while later Daryl and Shane heard what they thought could be voices not far ahead. As they got closer to the edge of the woods, Daryl signaled for Shane to stay put while he went ahead.

Daryl carefully stalked forwards into what looked to be a good sized clearing and there was Carl, picking berries from bushes and nuts from the ground. Being so focused on Carl, Daryl forgot to watch his footing and stepped on a twig, snapping it.

Carl jerked his head up to try and see where the noise had come from and Daryl walked out of the cover of the trees just as someone had run out of the foliage and grabbed Carl jerking him backwards.

The first thing Daryl noticed about the person jerking Carl behind them was their flaming red hair. The second was the neon pink compound bow that was raised and aimed at him.

The woman was small, maybe just over five feet tall, if that. She had red-orange hair that was braided over one shoulder and reached her waist and it looked like it was on fire from the rays of the sun. She looked kind of skinny but not unhealthy looking like Carl's mom, Lori. She had on a tight, pink short sleeve shirt with some kind of picture on the front and tight, ripped up, light blue faded jeans with a large hunting knife strapped to her right thigh.

All in all, she didn't look intimidating at all. As if the freaking world hadn't even ended.

"Let the boy go!" Daryl yelled from across the clearing. "Fuck you! Who the hell are you?" the woman yelled back.

Daryl seen Carl poke his head from around the small woman and look at him, slightly stunned. Carl reached up and grabbed a hold of her shirt and said something to her. She said something back but never took her eyes or aim off of him.

After a minute she lowered her bow but still starred at him and pulled Carl out from behind her.

"So you're Daryl Dixon, huh? Heard you call me "The Creeper". Now that's not very nice, now is it?" she said with a smile on her lips.


	3. And a deal was struck

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Short ad sweet.**_

_**AN: So this is a new story I have been working on. And it's been going pretty smoothly so far. I have had complete and total tunnel vision on The Walking Dead so I've decided to try my hand at it. I have quite a number of chapters under my belt on this story. Now I learned my lesson about about posting everything I have so I'm only gonna post a chapter or two a week. I hope you guys enjoy.**_

Chapter 3

Adrian had only been a few yards away from Carl when she had heard something snap from not too far away.

"Carl." she breathed. She took off running towards the boy she had left picking berries in the clearing only to see a man standing just outside of the wood line pointing what looked like a crossbow at the boy.

Adrian had grabbed ahold of Carl roughly and had shoved him behind her with a quick, tense command to stay behind her.

The clearing wasn't too terribly big so she could make the man out pretty well. He was about average height with dark hair, either brown or black, she couldn't really tell. He had on jeans and a red sleeveless shirt. She could tell that his crossbow must have been his weapon of choice if his arms were anything to go by. They weren't overly muscular but they were well defined to say the least.

She could tell he was sizing her up and she knew that to someone like him, she didn't seem like a threat._ 'Yeah they all think that. Before they get a knife or an arrow through the chest.'_ she thought with a sinister little smile.

"Let the boy go!" she heard the man yell out. She and Kale had been discussing on how to get Carl back to his camp without leading their damn trackers right back to them.

"Fuck you! Who the hell are you?" Adrian called out to the man. Adrian then felt Carl poke his head out from behind her. He then grabbed a handful of her shirt and lightly tugged on it to get her attention.

"Adrian, I know him. He's from my camp. That's Daryl Dixon. He goes out to hunt down our food." Carl said to her. _'Well, isn't this a lovely little twist.'_ Adrian thought. "Me and Kale were going to but we don't want anyone in your camp to know where we are. I guess he will just have to do instead." Adrian said to the boy still keeping her full attention on the newly dubbed Daryl Dixon.

She then lowered her bow and smiled to catch him off guard. "So you're Daryl Dixon, huh? It's not polite to call people "creepers" ya know." she said letting Carl come out from behind her.

Adrian then heard the trees rustling behind Daryl and anther man came running out with a gun pointed at her.

Adrian jumped back into attack mode and roughly pushed Carl back behind her and re-aimed her bow at the threatening newcomer.

The newcomer wore a black, tight fitting shirt, tan cargo pants, and black combat boots. His skin was tan and he had what looked like black hair. She could tell he used to be a man of power because she could feel it all the way from where she stood.

And she instantly hated him.

She hated men like him. Sure he could probably be a nice and decent guy. But she doubted it.

She had seen him a few times before when she and Kale had scoped out their camp. He seemed to be the one calling the shots, the one named Shane Carl had said, and she had also seen him and a woman having sex a few times while she had been out hunting for food.

"Bitch you hand that boy over right now or I'll put a bullet in between your damn eyes." the man said. "Screw you!" Adrian yelled back. "You seem to be a bit twitchy there, Shane. Wanna see who has the faster trigger finger?" Adrian taunted him.

"Shane?!" Carl called out from behind her. "Carl, get over here and away from her!" Shane yelled at the boy. Carl looked up at Adrian as if asking her permission to go back to his own people. Adrian knelt down to his level and then placed her bow and arrow on the ground so she could have one last talk with the boy.

She seen Shane make a move and quickly pulled a 9mm out of her ankle holster and pointed it at the man. "You stay there, asshole. I don't like guns, especially out here, but I will use it." she said glaring at the man who was glaring back.

"Carl, come here, honey." Adrian said gently pulling Carl in front of her so they could have a bit of privacy. "You go back to camp with them. I'm sure your mother is very worried about you. Remember what me and Kale taught you.

But be careful what you tell them. I'm sure your people don't like me and Kale any better than we do them. It's hard for people to trust each other now a days." Adrian said making him nod in response.

"Now, do you have the necklaces that we made for you and your friend, Sophia?" she asked him smiling.

"Yeah. And the knives too." he said making her smile even wider. She put her gun back into it's holster and then gave the boy a tight squeeze. "Good boy." she said.

"Now just stay here for one more second. Gonna weasel a deal outta your pal, Shane, over there." she said. She grabbed her bow and arrow in one hand and stood as she placed her other hand on Carl's small chest, as if holding him there.

"Alright, here's the deal. You keep your hunters from tracking me and mine back to our camp and you leave us alone. In exchange, I give you a twenty-four to forty-eight hour warning of when me and my man will be close by for water and I give Carl back without a fight. Agreed?" Adrian asked with a determined expression.

"Lady, you're gonna give that boy back and be grateful to walk away alive. How's that deal work for you?!" Shane yelled angrily, just itching to shoot her. Adrian smirked.

"You don't have much room to be making threats here Shane. I can disable both you and your man and take Carl back with me. I know where you live but you don't know where I'm camped at. Now I am offering you a good deal. You don't mess with me and mine and we leave you and yours alone." Adrian said loosing patience with the bastard of a bully.

"Now do we have a deal?" Adrian asked, drawing out each word slowly as if to make her point. After a very nasty look from Shane, she finally got her answer. "Deal. Now give Carl back." he said.

"Now go back to your own people. And no more venturing off." Adrian whispered to the boy, giving him two quick pats on his chest before sending him on his way.

As Carl got closer to Daryl and Shane, Adrian slowly slinked back towards the tree line.


	4. From one hunter to another

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Short ad sweet.**_

_**AN: So this is a new story I have been working on. And it's been going pretty smoothly so far. I have had complete and total tunnel vision on The Walking Dead so I've decided to try my hand at it. I have quite a number of chapters under my belt on this story. Now I learned my lesson about about posting everything I have so I'm only gonna post a chapter or two a week. I hope you guys enjoy.**_

Chapter 4

It had been two weeks since the deal had been struck between Adrian and Shane, and from what Adrian could tell, Shane wasn't holding up his end. Adrian had stayed true to her word and gave the group a heads up that she and Kale would be around for water soon.

Although she could have given them a forewarning a little differently, she just wanted to chap Shane's ass. So she tied a small piece of old pink cloth to the end of an arrow and shot it into the ground in the middle of their campsite.

Got everyone's feathers ruffled pretty good and she was even rewarded for her troubles by earning a few colorful choiced words aimed at her from Shane. She and Kale had been to the quarry three times in the past two weeks and much to her displeasure, she noticed that they were being tracked.

After she realized it she decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and walk around in a few big circles and see if they followed. They did. And Adrian was not pleased._ 'No honor amongst thieves I guess.'_ Adrian thought.

Adrian had been close to the camp a few times to check out the people and now knew the face of the other tracker, Daryl's older brother, Merle._ 'Doesn't look like much of hunter.'_ Adrian thought one day as she starred at the older, much less attractive, Dixon brother.

_'Guess I know who I'm going to be tracking down then.'_ Adrian thought as she silently backed away from the camp site.

Adrian had been quietly tracking Daryl Dixon all day, deliberately staying a ways behind him until they were far enough out for her to confront him. He had been killing squirrels all day and had just set his sights on a big fat rabbit when she decided to mess with him too.

She took her aim at the rabbit and waited until she seen him fixing to strike when she hit the rabbit, killing it instantly.

After a second of silence, Adrian grinned when she heard him. "Dammit that was my rabbit. Been trackin' that damn thing for twenty minutes." she heard Daryl yell.

"I know." Adrian said coming out from behind the tree she had been biding behind. "Because I've been tracking you all day." she said picking up the dead rabbit by the ears.

"Oh yeah? An' why is that?" Daryl asked with some anger in his voice. "Because you, Daryl Dixon, have been tracking me." Adrian said glaring at the dirty, sweaty hunter.

Unfortunately for Adrian that did nothing to take away from his attractiveness. If anything else, it stoked her fire just a little bit hotter.

But she would die before she admitted that to him.

"So." he simply said. So much annoyance in one little word. "So, we had a deal. I give Carl back and let you know when I'm coming for water and you don't track us. That was the deal. So why are you tracking us?" Adrian demanded.

"We don't trust you. We don't like that your around here. I know you been sneakin' around the camp. For all we know you took Carl the second he was outta everybody's sight." Daryl said angrily.

"Hey!" Adrian growled pointing a finger in his direction. "Let's get something straight here. I found Carl in a damn tree with three zombies snappin' at his ankles. If it wasn't for me, Lori Grimes wouldn't have a kid right now." she said glaring at the redneck.

"I killed those things, burned them, brought Carl back to camp. Gave him food and protection. I always intended on giving him back but I wasn't going to walk up to your doorstep and drop him off only to have you track me back to camp. We've been out here longer than you have. If we wanted ANYTHING that you had in that camp, it would be gone before you damn well knew it." Adrian said yanking her arrow out of the rabbit.

She then pointed the blood smeared arrow at him. "You leave us the hell alone. I find you tracking me or my man again, I'll put a damn arrow in your leg. Try tracking me then." she said throwing the rabbit at Daryl's feet.

Adrian then quickly turned fled into the thickness of the forest.

A week after Adrian and Daryl's _discussion_, Adrian and Kale decided that it was a good night to get water. They had made plans to move out in a few days due to an increase of zombie sightings close to and around their camp.

They were no more than a hundred yards away from the others camp when they started hearing screaming and gun shots. Never knowing what they would encounter on their water runs, Adrian and Kale always came ready for a fight.

Adrian stopped in her tracks and then looked back to Kale. "We have to help them, Kale. Carl and other children are in that camp." Adrian said with a small tremor in her voice. After getting a good look at her face, Kale took his shotgun from his shoulder and then nodded.

They broke through the tree line but didn't go in any farther for fear being mistaken as a zombie and shot. The camp was in chaos. People were trying to run to safety, shooting or hitting the zombies to kill them. Some people weren't so lucky as to get away from the zombies and were screaming in pain at being chewed on.

Adrian looked back at Kale and nodded with a determined expression. Kale took aim and shot at any zombies close to them while Adrian aimed for the ones eating the living. At least if she missed, it would be a blessing to end their suffering.

After a few minutes more gun fire joined the party as four people ran into camp to help eliminate the threat. Adrian looked at the men returning to camp from where they had been and recognized all but one.

There was the black man, T-Dog she had heard people call him, the Asian boy, Glenn who tended to go on alot of the supply runs, and, oh joy, her favorite tracking redneck, Daryl.

She didn't recognize the other man though. He was tall, slim from what she could tell, had dark hair but it was hard to tell in the dark, and he wore what looked like a police uniform.

A minute or so after they ran into camp, guns blazing, everything quietened down. It took a few minutes, but eventually she and Kale were noticed by none other than Shane.

"What the hell are you doin' here?! We had a deal, you don't come to this camp!" Shane yelled stalking towards her.

Since they had already been spotted, Adrian decided it was now safe to retrieve her arrows.

"Yeah and your part of that deal was to keep your bloodhound off my trail!" Adrian yelled back irritated violently yanking an arrow out of the head of one of the zombies.

"Did you think I would be too stupid to notice that he was tracking me? Oh and your welcome, by the way, you ungrateful ass!" she yelled again.

Shane must have gotten to close for Kale's comfort because she heard the unmistakable sound of him pumping his shotgun just behind her. Shane must have heard it too because he stopped where he was but didn't look happy about it.

A small ground then gathered behind Shane for the show. "Adrian! Kale!" they heard Carl yell as he ran towards them, much to his mothers dismay. Carl charged towards Adrian and ran into her head on, wrapping his arms around her waist. Adrian was jolted backwards a bit from the impact of the boy but wrapped her free arm around the small boy.

Rick Grimes walked up beside Shane to see his son hugging a stranger to him, a woman. She was small in size, maybe no bigger than five feet, she had on a tight black shirt that was ripped in a few places, dark blue jeans, a large knife strapped to one thigh, pale skin, and wild red braided hair that reached her waist.

"Carl! Get back over here!" Shane yelled and started towards the woman and Carl, only to be stopped by a young man who stood behind the woman. A young man who had his shotgun aimed at Shane.

"Don' even think about it, Cop." he said to Shane.

The woman grabbed Carl by the face and made him look at her. "Are you okay?" she asked him softly. Carl just nodded his head. "Okay. Now go back to your mom before Shane hurts something he doesn't have. Like a brain." she said with a small smile nodding towards the large group of people.

Carl did as the woman said and went back to his mother. "My name is Rick Grimes." the new man said to Adrian.

"I'm Carl's dad. How do you know my son?" Rick asked her. Adrian looked at him for a second and smirked.

"Found your boy in a tree a few weeks back. Your new here. Ain't seen you around here before." Adrian said to him willing to deal with him rather than Shane. "Stole him is more like it." they all heard Shane grumble. "Shut it, Pig!" Kale yelled at him.

"Kale! Easy." Adrian said half turning to give Kale a look to obey or pay for it later. Kale backed up just a step but still kept his aim on Shane. Adrian then turned back to Rick.

"My name is Adrian Hunter. This is my partner, Kale Hagan. Sorry for your losses here tonight." Adrian said truly sorry.

"If you would like, Kale an' I could help with clean up. Two more sets a hands to make it go by a little quicker." Adrian said looking around at all of the dead.

She knew that most of the men would be doing the dirty work but since she and Kale had no personal attachment to anyone in the camp other than Carl, helping would be no problem.


	5. Adrian the Observant

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! So today is going to be super fun for me because it will be The Walking Dead marathon of season 2 ALL DAY! I just recently got a friend (who absolutely hates zombie shows) into TWD thanks to the ever sexy Norman Reedus and she is now as obsessed as I am. So here is chapter 5, I may be posting chapter 6 later in the week. A special thanks to all of my readers, followers, and reviewers. Thanks so much for your support. Enjoy! **_

Chapter 5

It was well after dawn and everyone was covered in dirt, sweat, and other things better left unsaid. It had been decided to burn the bodies of the "walkers" as the people from the camp called them and the people that had been killed during the night would be buried.

Adrian and Kale were dragging the emaciated body of a walker to the fire that already had multiple burnt or burning bodies there.

"Are you sure that it's such a great idea, letting them bury the dead?" Kale asked when the were still far enough away to not be heard.

Adrian looked up at Kale from the body that they were carrying and stopped. "These aren't our people Kale. We have no right to tell them what to do with their own dead. If the want to bury them, then we help and keep our mouths shut." Adrian said giving Kale a serious but gentle look.

"You wouldn't want outsiders tell you how to put me to rest." she said starting to walk again. They threw the body into the fire being manned by Glenn and walked off to get another body.

"How would you want me to put you to rest? If I ever had to?" Kale asked after a long awkward silence. Adrian stopped in her tracks and looked at the uncomfortable young man.

"Burn me. Bullet to the head and set on fire. The same I would do for you." she said with a sad smile.

"Besides...you know how I am about the dark. I'd rather burn then willingly go back into a dark hole." she said placing her hand on his shoulder before walking off.

A while later, Adrian was taking a short water break by the tree line when she heard the commotion about one of their people having been bitten. Everyone went on instant alert and began to circle the poor man as if he was the prey to a pack of wolves.

After seeing the bite for themselves, the group crowded together to decide what to do with the man. Daryl became extremely agitated and raised the pick axe he had been impaling into the skulls of the dead with the intention of doing the same to the infected man.

After being made to put weapon down, Daryl walked off with an angry huff. "Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this comin'!" Daryl yelled as he stormed off towards his tent.

"Do you really believe that?" Adrian asked from her hiding spot, startling Daryl just before he entered his tent.

"Do I believe what?" Daryl demanded. Adrian just gave him a blank stare, giving nothing away through her emerald green eyes or body language.

"Do you really believe that so many people deserved to die just because one man got left behind?" she asked, still giving nothing of her emotions away.

"Hell yeah. That 'one man they left behind' was my damn brother. Besides, what the hell do you know about anything around here?" he demanded again heading off into the woods.

"Alot more than you think I do." she said pushing from the tree she had been reclining against and started to slowly follow him.

"I know that Sophia's father beat her mother. I know that Dale still mourns his wife. I know about Shane and Lori, and that was not something I wanted to happen upon either." she said while Daryl was still angrily walking.

But her next words stopped him cold. "And I also know lot about you and Merle." Adrian said stopping. Daryl felt himself get hot and cold at the same time. Daryl turned around to look at her for a second.

Daryl didn't know anything about the woman other than that she was good with a bow, her partner and her cared for each other, and that the only reason she had a lick of concern for the group was because of Carl.

"And just what the hell do you think you know about us, huh? You don't know shit." Daryl growled in a low voice.

"I know that Merle was a drunken junkie before all of this. Still a junkie now. I know he thinks that nothing in this world is free, not even kindness. I know that he wasn't there for you when you needed him to be there the most." Adrian said not afraid, even expecting, retaliation for her words against his brother.

And Daryl wanted so badly to deny her words against Merle. But he couldn't because he knew them to be true.

"And I also know about you. About what you went through when you were young." Adrian said finally getting to her final point. Daryl instantly went red from anger and embarrassment.

"You don't know shit!" Daryl yelled stalking towards her only to be stopped by her words again.

"I've seen them, you know. The scars. You don't get that many scars from every day accidents. I also know that Merle has them too. Not as many, but still, they're there." Adrian said with a hard look in her gem like eyes.

"We should be getting back. See you at the camp." Adrian said to leave him to his thoughts.

She had seen the scars. The scars that he hated so much. The scars that proved that not even his old man had loved him. But when had she seen them? Daryl was careful about undressing around people so that they would never learn about the scars.

If she had seen them then she had been keeping very careful tabs on him and he hadn't even known it._ 'Some kinda hunter I am.'_ Daryl thought heading back towards the camp to help finish with clean up.

It had been decided that the group would go to Atlanta to the CDC and try their luck there and also to try and get the infected man help there. A man said that he and his family were going to try their luck by going up north to look for this wife's family. After giving them a hand held radio, a gun, and a half full box of bullets the family went on their merry way.

"What about you Adrian?" Carl asked bring attention to Adrian and Kale who were standing apart from the group.

"Are you coming with us?" he asked her. Adrian gave him a small sad smile and walked towards him, much to his mother and Shane's disgruntlement.

Adrian walked up to the small dark haired boy and squatted down, sitting on her hunches with him between her knees. She reached up gently wrapped her hands around his upper arms.

"No, honey, me and Kale aren't going with you. Remember what we discussed back at the cabin? These are your people, not ours and we don't expect your people to do anything for us. Okay?" Adrian said softly to the young, scared boy.

Daryl was actually surprised at how gentle and motherly she was with the Grimes boy. She had just basically told the boy that he would never see her or her partner again but with the way she was saying it it made it seem like he had just had a nightmare and she was telling him that all the monsters weren't real.

Only this time, the monsters were real.

"Okay." Carl said looking as if he might cry.

"Now give me a hug, huh." Adrian said pulling him into a tight hug.

"You listen to your mom and dad, okay? Be a good boy and listen to them." Adrian said as she let him go and walked back over to Kale.

"Adrian." Rick said as he walked after her. She stopped and turned towards the former cop.

"Come with us. We could use you and Kale. I know we're a big group and there isn't much trust to work with, but we could use you." Rick said in a low voice to her.

"We're going back to our place. Packing up what supplies we have and getting outta here. There's been too much walker activity around here lately and we were planning on puling up stakes anyway. We'll meet up with you in Atlanta at the CDC, we'll just be a little late." Adrian said walking into the thick forest with Kale.


	6. First Night in Atlanta

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I decided that I would post up two new chapters today to celebrate the release of The Hobbit! I'm so excited, I love that movie. Since I'm posting two chapters today I won't be posting again til Sunday so I hope yall enjoy. This chapter is a little short but the next one isn't. **_

Chapter 6

Adrian and Kale had been in Atlanta for hours but had yet to catch up with Rick and the others. They had thought they would be able to make it to the CDC but their truck got surrounded a few miles from the CDC so they had to grab what they could and abandon ship.

They had ended up in what used to be a nursing home but someone had come in and killed everyone. The sight of all those defenseless old people, as well as the smell, was atrocious, but it was better than being outside.

"We'll go back tomorrow and get the rest of the supplies tomorrow. Maybe scout around a little, find out exactly how far we are from the CDC. Meet up with Rick and his group." Adrian said to Kale as she was putting some last minute touches on a homemade arrow.

"I thought that we were going to stay away from them. You did say that they weren't our people. I mean you even told Carl that. What changed?" Kale asked. Adrian looked up from her wooden arrow to stare at the young man she had picked up.

Adrian had found him a few miles into the woods from Atlanta being chased by a handful of walkers when she had been out hunting on morning. He was attractive for a seventeen year old. If she had been a few years younger, she might even have tried to hit on him. But she was a full ten years older than him but he was still a cute kid.

Although he was skinny and looks like nothing more than big bones encased in tight skin, but the boy had more muscle on him than one would think. He could fight too, which was a good thing to know these days. He had extremely shaggy dark brown hair that had a tendency to fall into his eyes often and tended to curl towards the left. He had warm brown-green eyes and was overall a good kid.

Kale had been so thankful for Adrian's help that day and had been even more thankful when she said she would take him in and he could stay as long as he had wanted.

Kale was a city kid and hadn't known jack about how to live in the wild. Adrian had done so much for him since she had saved him, that he was willing to do anything she asked of him.

He had lost all of his family to the walkers, so Adrian was all he had now. He had asked about her family one night.

She had just said that she didn't know if any of them were alive or dead and had left it at that. Until a week later when he was startled awake by her screaming.

After that she told him about her family and her life before the outbreak. Afterwards he had wished he had never even asked her about it.

"They aren't our people but they could be if we let each other. Just remember Kale, safety with numbers is the best thing for people these days. You just have to find the right people." Adrian said in a low voice before going back to her arrow.

"But how do we know that those people are the right people?" Kale asked uncertainly. Kale understood her logic but if he was being honest with himself, he was a little jealous that he would be loosing all of her attention. He would have to share her time with others. He wasn't in love with her, but he did like her and have a crush on her.

"They're good people, Kale. Maybe not Shane, but at the same time I understand why he does the things he does. Everyone in Rick's group has heart and kindness in them. They are the kind of people you want to be loyal to. They could be as good for us as we could be for them." Adrian said never looking up at him.

"Like that Dixon guy? I know that you spied on him more than any of the others in that camp." Kale asked, not really sure if he should have asked the question. Adrian had been shaving the tip of the arrow to an even finer point but stopped at the question but never looked up.

"He's not a bad guy. Me and him have alot in common as people. We're both socially awkward, we're ashamed of our past, we know that we have to really work to have people accept us the way we are. The woods is where we can be ourselves without anyone there to judge us." she said as she started witling at her arrow again.

"Something you have to understand about people like me, Kale, is that in a way we can be compared to an abused animal. After being beaten for a period of time, you learn to start to fight back. Then you somehow manage to find kind people who want nothing more than to show you kindness, but at that point it's hard to trust people.  
But the people keep coming back and being kind to you and after a while you think that maybe they aren't so bad and little by little, you begin to trust them. And then after a little while longer, you realize that not all people are the same. Trust has to be earned slowly over a long period of time." Adrian said never taking her focus off of her arrow.

"You trusted me quickly." Kale said in a hopeful tone. But then he seen the small sad smile on her lips.

"No I didn't Kale. I allowed you into my camp, offered to take care of you, but I didn't trust you. But you earned it quicker than most people. You offered to learn how to hunt, you took care of things around the camp without being asked. You wanted to earn your keep there and by doing so, you earned my trust." she said still focused.

It hurt a little to know that she hadn't trusted him right away but if there was one thing he ha learned about Adrian Hunter, it was that she was a tough bitch. Her life had made her that way, he understood that, but it didn't mean that he sometimes wished that she were different.

More normal maybe. Or what used to be normal. But then again, if she had been normal, they would both most likely be dead. Even in the old world, Adrian was the kind of girl that a guy noticed. She was tough, confident in herself although unsure how to act around other people, she was beautiful, kind to those she deemed earned or deserved it, and wasn't afraid to tell a person how it was.

Like when she dealt with Carl both at their camp and at his. He had asked question most people would want to shield a child from, be she had told it t him straight. She had told him that he needed to still listen t his mother, that even though he was still a child that he needed to learn how to fight because, unlike the old world, this world didn't care if you were a child or an adult.

And then she had sat there and told him that they may never see each other again, when most adults would have given him a half truth of a little white lie about seeing each other again someday.

There were a few things about Adrian that Kale knew but at the same time, wished he didn't. She had had an extremely hard life and some days he was amazed that she had pulled through and was the kind of person she was today.

He knew that this new group would do more good for her than it would ever do for him and after everything she had done for him, how could he tell you not to try and join Rick's group. He would follow her lead on joining the group but he would also keep a close eye on her and the people from the other group.

Especially Shane.


	7. Meeting Up in Atlanta

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I decided that I would post up two new chapters today to celebrate the release of The Hobbit! I'm so excited, I love that movie. Since I'm posting two chapters today I won't be posting again til Sunday so I hope yall enjoy. This chapter is a little short but the next one isn't. **_

Chapter 7

Around noon the next day Adrian and Kale reclaimed their supplies that had been left in the vehicle that they had had to abandon the day before. After getting their supplies inside and in order, Adrian out for a few hours to scout around the area to check for walkers and the CDC.

A few hours before sundown, an earth shattering explosion was heard. Adrian looked up to see that about a mile from her position, huge plumes of black smoke could be seen reaching for the sky. "Kale." she thought aloud on a shaky breath.

Adrian quickly turned and charged in the direction of the nursing home and Kale. There was a fairly good chance that that may have been the CDC but if so, then what had happened? And why blow it up?

Adrian ran through only entrance into the nursing home and began to frantically yell out Kale's name. "Kale! Answer me, dammit!" Adrian yelled as she ran up the stairs two at a time while having her bow at the ready.

"Adrian?" she heard Kale shout from the top of the stairs. "What the hell happened out there? What was that noise?" Kale asked, shotgun in hand but pointed at the floor. "I don't know." she said stopping a few steps below Kale.

Then out of the sudden quiet came a noise that didn't belong. "Stay here." Adrian whispered as she started down the stairs very carefully and slowly so as to not make any noise. "No way! I ain't stayin' here while you go by yourself!" Kale whispered frantically to her retreating back.

Adrian quickly whipped her head around to give the teen a cold, hard, green eyed glare. "Do as I say before I beat the shit out of you again! Now get up there and guard the damn supplies!" Adrian whispered back. Kale backed down and did as he was told.

Adrian was at the bottom of the stairs when she heard voices just around the corner. Very carefully, Adrian poked her head around the corner only to quickly jerk it back to avoid an arrow in the face. Seeing the arrow in the wall, Adrian slumped in relief.

"Trying to kill me now, Daryl? I thought we had ourselves an understanding." Adrian said as she walked to the wall to jerk his arrow our of the plaster.

"Adrian?" she heard Rick call.

"Yeah. Who else is stupid enough to come to Atlanta?" she asked as she slowly walked around the corner.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought you said you were stayin' put out in the woods." Shane demanded unhappily. Adrian smirked as she held out Daryl's arrow to him, which he quickly took.

"I never said I was staying put. I told Rick that Kale and I went back to camp to pack up and that we would be behind y'all. So this is us meeting up. Although the original plan was to meet up at the CDC." Adrian said turning her gaze to Rick.

"What happened to that plan, by the way?" Adrian asked him raising an eyebrow.

"It blew up." Rick said. "Literally." Daryl said moving to walk past her and up the stairs.

"Ah ah ah. Hold on there a second, redneck. Don't wanna get shot do ya?" Adrian said putting her bow in his path and then taking a few steps backwards towards the foot of the stairs and looked up the semi dark path.

"Don't call me a redneck." Daryl growled at the woman while eyeing her bright pink compound bow that was currently in his path.

_ 'She got her damn fingernails painted?! Who the hell cares about their nails during the end of the world?'_ Daryl thought as he looked at the pale hand holding onto the bow.

Adrian had her mouth open ready to say something when she suddenly closed it and turned to give him a half irritated look.

"Oh please. I'm from Louisiana. Bein' a redneck hick is practically a compliment." Adrian said turning back towards the stairs. "Besides, would you rather be called a redneck or be shot at? Kale's up there with a loaded shotgun."she said to everyone.

"Kale! Don't shoot. It's Rick and the others. We're comin' up." she yelled. "Roger that!" they heard from the darkness. Adrian dropped her bow and started upstairs. "Upper level has been cleared. Smells just as bad upstairs as it does down here but at least it's safe from th walkers. Do what your gonna do and meet us upstairs." Adrian said walking away.

Daryl watched her march up the stairs, eyeing her get up, and maybe her ass a little, as she climbed. She had on a thin black long sleeve shirt that stopped at her knuckles and seemed to have a hole just big enough for her thumbs to fit through. She had on a think black cotton wrist band with some kind of red design on it, he couldn't tell what it was though. She had on tight, dark blue, boot cut jeans that made her ass look pretty good.

Okay, fine, he was totally checking out her ass and legs.

She had her bright red hair pulled back into a tight braid, like she did every other time they had seen her._ 'Probably to keep walkers from grabbin' it.'_ Daryl thought. "Alright. It's gettin' dark so let's barricade the doors and get everyone upstairs for the night." Rick said to the others.

They all turned to tell them that it was all clear and safe to go upstairs. Lori had to practically hold Carl back from running upstairs when Rick informed the group that Adrian and Kale were upstairs.

It was after dark when everyone was upstairs and all sitting in a room. Rick's group had managed to scrounge up a big can of garbanzo beans that everyone got a little of while Shane threw everyone a bag of chips. Kale and Adrian had passed since they had their own food and didn't want to take what little the others had.

One of the women, the blonde woman she heard called Andrea, was sitting apart from everyone and looking as if she was running on fumes. The rest of the women, the Asian boy Glenn, and Carl and Sophia all looked scared and lost.

Adrian seen the older man, Dale, walk over to Andrea with a paper plate of some beans and a small bag of chips. Dale said something to the woman only to hear her huff and start complaining.

Adrian was witling away at an in progress arrow when she decided to speak up against the woman.

"Anything else you want to complain about over there, Andrea?" she asked sarcastically, never looking up from her arrow. Andrea looked past Dale to the red head leaning against the opposite wall.

"What the hell do you know about anything, outsider?" Andrea asked clearly annoyed. Daryl silently snorted to himself as he sipped from the full bottle of whiskey Shane had grabbed._ 'That was the wrong thing to ask, woman. An' your not gonna like the answer you get either.'_ Daryl thought, thinking about the answer he had gotten when he asked that same question just days before.

Adrian stopped midstroke on her arrow and slowly lifted her eyes to the now angry blonde. The tension in the air was not thick as nobody moved sensing the argument that was about to ensue but there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it.

"So you lost your sister to walkers but you didn't have the gall to shoot her til after she had turned and tried to eat your face off. You lost your only family, tragic, yes, but this world doesn't care. In the old world you could properly mourn your dead, mope around for weeks. But not in this world. In this world, you mourn for a while, put your loved ones to rest however you want, and move on.  
Amy was a sweet girl but she's dead now and nothing is going to change that. This world isn't for pussies. Unnecessary feelings are a distraction and that distraction could get not only you, but others killed. So accept that she's gone, move on, toughen up and grow some balls already. You act as if you're the only person who has lost someone to this damn thing.  
Well let me inform you that you aren't." Adrian said as she pushed away from the wall and started for the door with everyone's eyes on her.

"And another thing, if you don't like the smell in here then take your unhappy as outside with the walkers for some fresh air. I'm sure they'd enjoy the meal." Adrian said as she slammed the door behind her.

"Who the hell does she think she is?! She doesn't know anything! Who the hell has he lost? We don't know anything about her!" Andrea fumed.

Kale stood in a dimmly lit corner and decided to answer her rhetorical question.

"She lost a kid she was trying to protect when Atlanta started to get overrun when this thing started. Wasn't no older than Carl there. They were running and he got bit. They knew enough about the virus to know that he was a goner. After they got out of the city, the boy asked her to kill him before the virus did. Straight shot to the head. She refused but knew that he was in pain and it would only get worse." Kale said quietly in the silent room.

"She then manned up and grated his request. She looked him in the eyes when she pulled the trigger. After she pulled herself together, she burned his body and took off into the woods. A few weeks later she found me. So don't be so quick to judge other people about their experience with this thing just because you can't read their emotions." Kale finished, looking the blonde in her troubled blue eyes.

Adrian was propped up in a doorway a few doors down from the group when she heard the men come out, minus Kale who she knew was looking after their supplies. Apparently Glenn had said something to spook the women and children and Shane was crawling his ass about it how they were already scared.

"They should be. They have every right to be. There's no shame in being scared when it calls for it." she said from the dark, startling all of the men.

"But you shouldn't be coddling them. This is the world they have to live in now. They need to learn to control their fear so that they can make it. In the old world it was fine to shield the women and children from the scary things in life. But this new world couldn't give a shit if your a man, woman, or child. It will chew you up just the same. Just a word of advise." she said, still speaking in a low voice but loud enough for them to hear.

"You mean like that kid you put down?" Shane asked with annoyance in his voice.

"Shane!" Rick and Glenn exclaimed. Adrian went deathly still at that statement. "I'm going to look around downstairs." she said pushing away from the doorway and quietly walking down the stairs.

"Way to go, jackass." Daryl said taking a swig of whiskey. "Shane, that was uncalled for and you know it. But she did have some valid points on a few things." Rick said to the three men standing outside the door. They then made their way over to Dale and T-Dog who were sitting at the top of the stairs.

Daryl had went downstairs to check on Adrian but had kept his steps quiet. She must not have heard him because he found her in one of the rooms looking at something in her hands. He could hear her sniffle a few times and assumed she was crying.

"I thought this world wasn't for pussies." he asked in a low voice. The red head quickly put whatever she had been looking at in her back pocket and quickly wiped her nose on her wrist band.

"It's not." she said with a scratchy voice as she wiped her face of the salty tear trails.

"The what's with the cryin'? Ain't cryin' for pussies?" Daryl asked as he slowly walked into the room. Adrian then tuned her head towards him in the dark.

"Crying doesn't make you weak. Crying when it's warranted is fine. Crying all the time and rolling over when the world gets a little tough is what a weak person does." she said, her voice a little stronger than before.

A beam of light snuck its way through the boarded up window and fell onto her face. Her eyes were slightly red and still shinney from her tears but the green of her eyes were as bright as ever.

"You should go upstairs, back to your group. I'm sure tomorrow will be another crazy day." she said turning away from him to peer outside. "Ain't it your group now too?" Daryl asked. A small sad smile crept up onto her pink lips.

"It'll be our group when we earn our keep. Not a second before then." Daryl heard her say as he left the room.


	8. Highway to a Herd

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So Sunday is finally here and therefore another chapter. And another episode of TWD. The season finale is still a full week away and I'm already stressin' out. So I've notied that some of my chapters aren't as long as I thought they were so I'm going to try and try and write the chapters no less than four full pages. Writing chapters longer than that sometimes causes me to get writers block and I'm doing really good so far, so I don't want that to happen.**_

_**My story is doing so much better than I ever thought it would. Over 1400 views. So I'd like to give a special thanks to all of my fans.**_

_**To those who Favorited this story: E, 14jordan14, DesDesxoxo, Forest Ira, JackSparrowsWench92, Starlight102, XAngel-from-the-SnowX, hayleyjune13, hfward1221, thesounds82, , wildcat717**_

_**And to those who are Following this story: **__**14jordan14, Aurora333, AwkwardImagination, Buckismith, DanielleBurkex3, DesDesxoxo,Fall-Back-Down, Forest Ira, Hope and love, JackSparrowsWench92, Lilly72, LyannaFairy, 01, NoFace the Demon, .Devil, OnlyHalfEvil333, Paper Grenade, RachelNicole523, RealSlimShady, Rey Abernathy-Rafkin-House, Starlight102, The Animals' Keeper, XAngel-from-the-SnowX, arrowsandkittens, ashleyPayne, ellak10847, elmoisemo6, hayleyjune13, hfward1221, jenn117, kittykat195, krikim67, sdxdoll, shyannene, tillybillygoat, , wildcat717**_

Chapter 8

The general consensus the night before had been made that the group would be heading to a military base over a hundred miles away and that all gas guzzling vehicles would be left behind. Which meant that Adrian and Kale had to either hitch a ride or find something of their own.

Adrian had lit out at first light to find something. The only fuel worthy vehicle she had found for them was a single seat, blue, 2008 kawasaki ninja motorcycle about a block away from the nursing home. She had managed to siphon enough gas to get a full tank and carefully drove it back to the home.

T-Dog's van got left behind as well as Daryl's truck and Shane's jeep, leaving the RV which had Dale, Glenn, Kale, T-Dog, Shane, and Andrea inside. Carol's jeep which had Rick behind the wheel, Lori in front, and Carl, Sophia, and Carol in the back. Daryl was left driving his brother's bike, and Adrian her newly stolen bike.

After driving for a few hours the group hit an impassable part of the road. Daryl slowly drove through to see if he could find a way through for everyone else, only for the RV to make a loud popping and whining noise. Adrian parked her bike a few yards in front of the RV and pushed the kick stand down. White smoke was coming out from under the grill of the RV.

Everyone convened in front of the RV while Dale complained about fixing the problem obviously not yet noticing where they were. Shane made a sarcastic remark about not finding spare parts. "Whole bunch a stuff here we can find." Daryl said as he started digging through the back of a car.

"Wise suggestion, redneck." Adrian said walking past him to another car with her bow slung over her shoulder by it's strap. Adrian turned to find Kale. "Kale." she said getting his attention. She gave him a hand motion to keep his eyes on Carl and Sophia especially.

It wasn't that she didn't trust their mothers, even though she had no reason to, but an extra set of eyes on them wouldn't hurt. "What I say about callin' me redneck?" Daryl grumbled before she got too far away from him.

"I told ya, Daryl, in my corner a the woods, it's a compliment." Adrian said calling out from over her shoulder. "Yeah, well this ain't your corner a the woods, now is it?" Daryl replied.

Adrian just rolled her eyes. "God, country men are such babies sometimes." she mumbled to herself. "What was that?" she heard Daryl call out. "If I wanted you to hear what I said, Daryl, I woulda said it loud enough for you to hear me." she said digging through a suitcase.

None of the those were really her style or size but she figured that maybe one of the other women would appreciate the thought. She had ended up close to Carl and Sophia and was only a few feet away when she heard and urgent whisper from Rick to get under the cars.

Adrian turned her head quickly and then rolled under the same vehicle as Carl with Sophia right across from him. A few seconds later they heard the moaning growls and dragging feet of an assload of walkers.

The walkers passed only for Sophia to try to crawl out to early and catch the attention of a walker. Her screams attracted the attention of another and she was going to be damned before one of those walkers got that little girl.

Adrian rolled out from under the car with Carl and took off after the walkers and Sophia after they had all cleared the tree line but had left her bow behind without thinking about it. Adrian could hear Sophia yell out as if something had caught her off guard only to pop out of the trees to see Rick holding onto Sophia.

"Rick, we nee to go! They're right behind us." Adrian whispered loudly. She had left her bow behind but was still armed with her hunting knife strapped to her thigh while her back up 9mm was strapped to the other. Rick, Adrian, and Sophia ended up at a shallow creek.

Adrian looked around with Rick and spotted a well camouflaged hole in the bank just big enough for Sophia. Which meant that Rick and Adrian had to stay out in the open and draw the walkers away from her so she could get away safely.

Rick put Sophia in the hole while the poor girl begged him not to leave her alone._ 'Could have saved everybody this damn trouble if I had just brought my damn bow! I suck ass at throwing knives.'_ Adrian thought as Sophia got in the hole and stayed quiet. The walkers showed up at the bank while Adrian and Rick yelled at the walkers to draw their attention.

After they were safely away from Sophia, Rick ran ahead while Adrian took off in another direction. Adrian showed up in time to see Rick throw a huge rock at the second walkers head, which knocked him down. Adrian stepped out of the woods and placed her booted foot over the walkers mouth, knelt down onto one knee, and drove her game knife in between the walkers eyes.

"Ugly, smellin' ass bastard." she grumbled as she pulled her knife out and wiped the thick blood off onto its shirt. They made it back to the creek to see that Sophia was gone. "Maybe she went back to the highway like you told her to." Adrian suggested as they looked around.

"Ah, I don't know, maybe." Rick said turning in circles as if that would give him answers. They made it back to the highway only to see everyone standing by the guardrail waiting for them. "Damn it." she whispered to herself knowing that was a bad sign.

"She's not here, is she?" Adrian asked looking directly at Kale, knowing he would give her an answer instead of just looking at her.

Kale was standing there with her bow in hand, which at any other time would have been funny. A seventeen year old holding a hot pink compound bow, but not today. Not while Sophia was still in the woods. Kale seen her eyes go hard and she nodded towards her bow that had a few arrows racked up, which he quickly threw to her.

Adrian caught it with one hand and pointed towards Carl. "Both eyes. At all times." she growled at Kale who just nodded. Adrian whistled at Daryl nodding her head towards the woods. "Come on, bloodhound. Got a trail to pick up and little daylight left." she said as she started back towards the woods.

"Whoa whoa whoa. You ain't goin' nowhere. Your ass is stayin' here." she heard Shane yell out to her.

"Make me, cop!" she said as she disappeared into the woods. Very shortly after Adrian heard a stampede of footsteps behind her. She turned to see who all came and seen the familiar faces of Rick, Shane, Daryl, and Glenn.

"Four guys and a girl. Well aren't I just lucky." she mumbled to herself as they headed towards the creek.


	9. On the hunt with a full moon

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I have decided that since this weekend is super special because Sunday is not only Easter but also the date for the final episode of The Walking Dead Season 3, that I will post 2 chapters this weekend. They are not overly long, in fact I think this chapter is kinda short, but it's better than nothing. Also, even though it is Friday night, this is technically Saturday's chapter but I will be away from my laptop most of the day so I am posting it now. Chapter 10 will not be posted until Sunday afternoon or evening sometime. So plz, read, review, and enjoy.**_

Chapter 9

Daryl had tracked Sophia's movements and found that she had done as she was told as far as heading back to the highway before she took off in the wrong direction for some unknown reason.

Rick had sent Shane and Glenn back to the highway while Rick, Daryl, and Adrian stayed on the trail until they had just enough light to make it back to the highway. "So, Adrian. You're pretty handy in the woods yourself. Why call for Daryl to come along?" Rick asked after Shane and Glenn split. Daryl was also curious about that.

"Daryl is better at this than I am. He's been doin' this practically his whole life, I'm sure. I've only been doing this about ten years in total." she answered.

"You're good enough to track my ass without me knowin'. What makes you think you couldn't track her?" Daryl asked lookig back at her.

"Hunting a full grown man and hunting a small girl is two completely different things. Besides, I've never been lost in the woods on accident before. I wouldn't know how to think like a child would in this kind of situation." she said answering his question.

_'Damn it, man! Is there anything about me that this chick didn't find out?'_ Daryl thought looking back at the trail.

A little while later they happened upon a single walker. Adrian hid behind a tree while Rick got it's attention so Daryl could shoot it.

Rick put on a pair of gloves and started fishing around in the walkers mouth. Then the decision was made to cut the bitch open to make sure he hadn't been around Sophia. Adrian only half paid attention to Daryl cutting the walker open.

The other half of her focus was watching the muscles in Daryl's arms work as he was sawing at the walkers stomach.

It had been quite a while since Adrian had gotten laid but she wasn't going to blame that on her current fascination with the hunters arms. And his shoulders. And his ass.

Well, not ALL the blame anyway.

Oh no, that was entirely on him. Adrian had never thought of herself as liking a certain type of man, but she did have a short list that she liked to go by and he fit the bill.

Sure he was a little rash in some of his decisions and had a problem holding onto his temper and, was more often than not, filthy as hell covered in dirt, sweat, and a number of other things but underneath she could tell he was a nice guy who cared about the other people in the group.

Maybe not her and Kale, but still, he cared or else he wouldn't be out here with her and Rick looking for Sophia.

Daryl had tossed the stomach which Rick cut open. "What in the _hell_ is that?" Adrian asked pointing at the small skull on the tip of Daryl's knife. "Woodchuck. Bastard just ate a woodchuck." Daryl answered tossing the skull off his knife.

"It'll be dark soon. We should head back." Adrian said looking up sky through the trees.

"Yeah. Pick it back up tomorrow." Daryl said resheathing his knife and picking up his crossbow. "We'll get everybody out here tomorrow. Daryl will take point." Rick said as they headed back to the highway.

It was a full moon out that night and the sky looked like black velvet covered in white sparkling diamonds. Dale was on watch on top of the RV with his binoculars and a rifle and it was well past midnight but Adrian was still wide awake.

Adrian assumed that everyone was well and asleep by this time of night. Adrian was about a hundred and fifty yards away from the RV, reclining on the windshield of an abandoned, newer model Ford truck looking at the night sky.

Adrian got lost in her thoughts of the day but not so lost that she missed the sound of shuffling footsteps. She quickly sat up and pulled her game knife out and at the ready. A few seconds later, Kale came into view.

"Kale." Adrian said sighing in relief. "What are you doing out here. You need to be sleeping." she said to the teen as she resheathed her knife.

"So should you." he said to her. "Thinking about him again? About that night?" Kale whispered taking in her profile in the bright moonlight.

Rarely had he ever seen his red headed companion really and truly relaxed, not even in sleep. He supposed that no one these days could really ever truly relax, but Adrian always seemed to have every muscle coiled in tension, always prepared for a fight.

And tonight was no different. If anything, it was worse than most nights due to the fact that the little girl was missing.

"If I have to be honest about it, I never really stop thinking about it. I always seem to be thinking about him in one way or another." Adrian whispered back, starring off into space, which was rare in of itself.

"Are you ever gonna tell them? The truth I mean?" Kale asked, still keeping his voice decently low. Adrian thought hard on that question.

"Maybe. But for right now, it's none of their business." she finally answered.

"Now go and get some sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day for all of us." Adrian said turning to look at Kale, giving him a small smile they both knew was just for his benefit.

Kale turned to leave, but what neither one of them seen was the shadow hiding in the dark just a few feet away.


	10. Red vs Blonde

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: Happy Easter everyone! I posted this earlier than maybe you expected but, being 3 a.m. it is technically Easter Sunday. My day will be spent running around to my grandparents and in-laws and then I'll be gearing up for the season finale and by that time I will probably forget to post. Sadly, this chapter is pretty short and I'm sorry for that. A big thank you to all of my readers, followers, and reviewers. Please read, review, and enjoy.**_

Chapter 10

Adrian knew today was going to be a very physical and hot day so she decided to dress accordingly.

She dressed in a bright green tank top, that matched her eyes as Kale had once told her, that showed about an inch of skin, and a good portion of her grey sports bra, from the hem to the waist of her blue jeans, light blue, faded, boot cut jeans, and tan Ranger Joe combat boots. As usual she braided her hair back and then began to weapon up.

She strapped on her thigh holster for her game knife on her right leg, a shoulder holster that she had picked up for her 9mm, a leather quiver half full of store bought and homemade arrows, and finally grabbed her hot pink bow. All of her stuff had been inside the RV so when she was done, she stepped out of the stuffy RV and into the hot Georgia sun.

Adrian had started walking away from the RV when a question from Andrea stopped her. "Seriously? Make-up and nail polish? Didn't you have more important things to take?" she asked with a serious attitude. Adrian just stopped and looked at her as if she was crazy.

"Make-up? What the hell are you taking about?" she asked the blonde woman.

Andrea pointed towards her eyes. "The eyeliner?" she asked as if it was obvious. Adrian smiled at the question while Kale could be heard laughing from a few feet away. Their reaction seemed to have caught everyone's attention.

"What?" Andrea asked, some anger peeking though.

"It's permanent. Had it done in my late teens, early twenties. And the nail polish is optional. Just because the world as we knew it ended doesn't mean I can't still dress like a woman." she said walking towards Rick.

"Don't take the reaction personally. It took me a week to notice that she was never without her eyes or nails done. I think that they are more of a reminder that she's a woman more than anything." Kale said to the blonde with a serious attitude.

"Whatever." she said storming away.

Kale walked up to Adrian eyeing her get up. "A little over the top, don't ya think?" he asked. "You know me." she said counting the bullets in her clip. "Always like to be prepared." she said sliding it back into place.

"And the gun?" he asked looking up at her from the now holstered gun. "It's just a back up, you know that." she said. They both knew that she would only use the gun unless she was extremely desperate.

"And the shirt?" Kale asked a little uncomfortably. Kale knew that Adrian, more than anyone, was aware of all of her flaws. And also hated it when people pointed it out, which was the only reason he had asked in the first place.

"They'll stare, like they always do. But they won't ask. Only the brave ones do. Besides, it's hotter than a barbecue in hell out here and only gonna get hotter. I'll be damned if i'ma wear a long sleeve just because I don't like my own skin." Adrian said, a hard edge to her tone.

Rick unrolled a decent sized pouch of large knives that were each a different size and shape. Rick told everyone to get one, aside from her and Daryl who already had their own silent weaponry. "These aren't the kinds of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Andrea asked. She had heard that Dale had hidden her gun, which Shane backed him on, and she was pissed about it.

_'Damn woman doesn't even know how to use a damn gun right. Doesn't even have any business havin' one.'_ Adrian thought looking at the blonde. "We already been over this, the less guns bein' toted around, the better. Me, Rick, and Daryl are carryin'. That's all the guns we need on the loose right now." Shane said from his spot by the RV.

"And her? Clearly she is allowed to carry." Andrea said angrily gesturing to Adrian. "Yeah, well my gun never leaves my sight, so I'd like to see you take it from me. Besides, how many times have you seen me with a gun in my hand?" Adrian said challenging the woman.

"If you don't use then why do you even have it?" Andrea asked, still pissed. "It's my last resort weapon. The back up for my back up. Just because I don't like guns doesn't mean I'm stupid enough to be caught on my own without one." Adrian said.

"And besides, I know how to control my itchy trigger finger." she said ending the discussion.

"Adrian's right. She mainly depends on her bow and her knife, if need be. So get over not havin' your gun." Shane said, clearly surprising Adrian by taking her side.

The plan Daryl had set out was for everyone to follow the creek for a few miles on one side and then make their way back on the other. "Smart plan, redneck." she smirked as Daryl walked past her.

"I'm coming too. Sophia is my friend. I wanna be out there looking for her too." Adrian whipped her head in the direction that Carl's voice had just come from. After a bit of a debate, Lori and Rick decided that Carl could join in on the hunt for Sophia.

Everyone was geared up to go when Adrian heard Andrea telling Dale that she wanted her gun back. And when Dale refused she got angry and started talking about someone giving them a way out that Andrea had wanted but Dale had somehow forced her to live instead of die.

"I am so tired of this bitches complaining already!" Adrian growled storming over to the blonde. "Adrian!" Kale called out, drawing a few of the groups attention to her. Adrian grabbed an arrow from her quiver, placed it in it's proper position, and pulled back, aiming straight for Andrea's face.

"Andrea!" she yelled a few yards from the woman. Andrea and Dale both looked at her, both surprised to see Adrian with her weapon drawn on one of them. "Adrian!" she heard Rick yell. "What the hell do you think you're doin', woman!" she heard Shane yell.

"I am sick and tired of her complaining! And I've only know her a few days!" she shouted to them. "Now you said that you wanted a way out. Your way, not bein' eaten by walkers. You left that building that exploded because you didn't want Dale's blood on your hands. That you had nothing left to live for." Adrian said with a hard, deadly tone in her voice.

"Adrian." she heard Kale call out to her, his voice a little shaky. He had seen her go into predator mode only twice before, and both times she had come out bloody and victorious. And the blood was never hers.

"You have nothing to live for, fine. You still want a way out that doesn't involve walkers, fine I'm giving you one now. You didn't want Dale's blood on your hands, fine your blood will be on my hands. And let me tell you something honey, blood washes off of my skin just fine and I won't loose a wink of sleep over it." she said deadly serious.

"Now, do you still want out or do you want to shut the hell up and grow some balls already?" Adrian asked done playing games with the broad.

When Andrea didn't answer her Adrian knew she had gotten her answer. She loosened her bow string and lowered her weapon.

"Good. Now shut the hell up and let's go. You're burning daylight with your bitchin' and complainin' because you can't have things your way." she said walking away.

Adrian passed Carl on her way to the guardrail and seen the look on his face. A mixture of awe and disbelief. Adrian just gently placed her hand on his head and kept walking.

"Kale! Move your ass or you're staying here." Adrian called out to the boy.

He jumped into action and took off after the woman who had all eyes on her.


	11. A walk through the graveyard

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: Sorry that I almost didn't post today guys. I've had a crazy weekend.**_

Chapter 11

They had been searching for about half an hour when Daryl couldn't keep from asking anymore. He was at the front of the line and Adrian was just a few steps behind him. The rest of the group was a few feet behind them.

"So what the hell was that back there? Drawin' on Andrea like that." he asked her in low voice so no one else would hear.

"I'm tired of her complaining. It's all she's done in the time I've known her. She crawled up Dale's ass about him taking her choice away on a way out. So I decided to shut her up and give her a way out. She chose to keep her mouth shut and live. Now she has no more reason to complain to Dale about taking her choice away." she said in the same low voice he did.

Daryl wanted to ask her something else, she could see it on his face. "What is it? You want to know something just ask. Whether I answer or not is a completely different story." she said to him with a small smirk on her face.

"Fine." he said after a minute of silent debating. "Why don't you like guns?" he asked her. She was quiet for so long he thought she wasn't going to answer. "Guns have killed every person but one that I have ever cared about. And I was there every time. The first time alone was enough of a reason. But the second time was the final nail in the coffin, so to speak." she finally said.

"All but one. Who's the one?" he asked although he was pretty sure he wouldn't get an answer to that one.

"The boy I tried to get out of Atlanta. Although I guess you could say that technically a gun killed him too." she whispered.

Daryl decided to shut up after that.

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A while later they happened upon a little clearing where someone had set camp. Daryl crouched down low to the ground when he seen the tent. He and Adrian motioned for everyone to get low as well. Daryl, Rick, and Shane slowly walked forward towards the tent. Daryl tried to look inside to see what was in there but couldn't see anything clearly.

Daryl had his knife out and at the ready while Shane and Rick had their guns aimed and ready, just in case. Adrian stayed back with the rest of the group. She knew when she could get away with crossing the line and when to know her place.

Daryl unzipped the door to the tent and quickly jerked it open only for all three men to start gagging._ 'Better them than me.'_ she thought with a grin. Daryl went inside and came back out a minute later. "Just some guy." Daryl told the group.

Suddenly a very faint noise could be heard. "Is that...church bells?" Adrian asked in confusion, more to herself than anybody else. Everybody ran off in the direction that Rick, Shane, and Daryl took off in. They hit a little clearing and everyone was trying to figure out which direction the noise was coming from.

Adrian stopped and listened for a full second before she shot off straight ahead. "Adrian!" she heard Kale call out but she just kept running. She heard the stampede of footsteps behind her so she didn't bother stopping.

Adrian broke the tree line to see a large, spread out graveyard and a small white church on the other side. She must have stopped too suddenly and too close to the tree line because someone ran full force straight into her.  
Adrian flew forward and thought she was going to kiss the grass but she felt a pair of hands grab onto her quickly and hold on. They jerked her backwards and kept her from falling. She turned to see Rick standing there.

"Thanks." she said.

Shane started to say something about it being the wrong church but Rick took off running full force across the graveyard and towards the church. Adrian took off at a slower pace after the rest of the group had passed her by. By the time she reached the church everyone else was rushing outside at the sound of bells ringing again.

"It's on a timer." she heard Daryl sigh as he paced around. Carol said something about going back inside for a while. She noticed that everyone but Andrea, Shane, and Lori. Adrian decided to look around the graveyard until everyone was ready to go.

"There ain't enough death goin' on these days, you wanna go and take a tour of a graveyard?" she heard from behind her.

Adrian turned to face Daryl standing not far too far behind her. "Oh there's more than enough death doin' around to quench my bloodlust. But me and God haven't been the greatest of friends over the years." she said turning back to the headstone at her feet.

"It's not that I don't believe in Him or anything. Just that it seemed when I needed him the most in my life, He wasn't there." she said never looking away. She gently placed her hand on top of the headstone.

"It was my mother and grandfather." she said letting her hand slide off the sun warmed stone.

"What?" she heard Daryl ask in confusion. "Earlier, when you asked why I don't like guns. It was my mother and grandfather." she said turning to look at him. She didn't know why she wanted him to know or even why she thought he deserved to know something that now only two living souls knew.

"They were killed. Both shot by the same man although they were years apart from each other. But there was never a body so the person was never found." she said in a low, even tone.

"Thought you said that you were there both times." Daryl said looking at her. He had to admit, just to himself, that she was beautiful even if she was a tough bitch who didn't take peoples crap. Like the thing with Andrea before they left the highway.

Her hair was braided back again but during the course of their search a few short strands got loose and hung around her face. He had never noticed it before but he thought he could make out a small patch of freckles across her nose.

He took in her outfit. It was the first time he had seen her up close in something that showed a good bit of skin. He could make out a few easier to see scars, pink and slightly puckered, but most of the other ones he could make out were white and flat. They ran all the way up her arms but he knew better than to ask about something personal like that.

He knew he wouldn't want her to ask him about his. Not that he would answer her even if she did and he had a feeling she would be the exact same way. She was also practically armed to the teeth, which he found kinda hot.

Not many women could get away with the look but she pulled it off really well.

"I was. But how does an eight year old tell the police that her father killed her mother? Or a twelve year old that her grandfather was shot to death by his own son? How does a child tell somebody something like that?" she asked him with a humorless laugh.

_'And I thought my old man was a bastard.'_ Daryl thought.

"I think that they're ready for us to gather up." Adrian said pushing away from the headstone and going to walk past him when she stopped beside him.

She looked at him with her bright green eyes, the softest he had ever seen them. She gave a half smile, which seemed to be genuine, and brought her left hand up to her lips and kissed her fingers. She then took her fingers from her still smiling lips and touched it to his cheek, which he jerked away from.

"What the hell was that?!" he asked irritation in his voice mostly because she had made him feel slightly embarrassed and very uncomfortable with not only the skin to skin contact but the slight intimacy of the act.

"A thank you for listening to me." she said with her hand on his shoulder, which she let slide off as she walked away. It was as she was walking away that Daryl finally realized that she had had her hand on his shoulder and he hadn't even noticed.

Much less jerked away.


	12. A Visit to the Woods

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I realize that I haven't posted in a while. My switch has flipped from **_**Writer Mode _to _Reader Mode_ and I don't mean fanfiction. I have been reading books left and right. Also I will be taking a short break on the story. You are now literally right on my tail in chapters so after I get ahead a little bit I will start posting again. I won't be writing this week because my mom came to visit for the week. So I hope you guys read and enjoy. _**

Chapter 12

Rick and Shane decided to split up the group to try cover a little more ground to look for Sophia. Rick, Shane, and Carl would check around the church a little more and the rest of the group would take the creek back to the highway.

Rick put Daryl in charge of the group going back to the creek and then everyone headed out. Adrian thought that she might have been more useful with Rick, Shane, and Carl but Daryl had more people to look after and she figured that between her, Daryl, Glenn, and Kale for real protection that they could all make it safely back.

They had been walking for a little while when they had decided to take a short break. Carol was disheartened that they still hadn't found Sophia and Andrea was still pissed that Lori had been given a gun but she still wasn't allowed to carry.

Adrian was standing off to one side with Daryl, Kale, and Glenn while Lori ranted about how everyone had blamed Rick for one thing or another since they had lit out from the quarry. And she didn't think that she was wrong about any of it.

No one other than Shane had even tried to step up and make the hard decisions for the sake of the group, but even then, Shane made decisions that would keep Lori and Carl safe above all others. She may not have been involved with the group long but she had done more than her fair share of spying on the Atlanta group and she wasn't ashamed of it.

She knew little things about all of the people that were left in the group but she had kept more of an eye out for Shane and Daryl than anybody else. Shane because he was a hot head and tended to make rash decisions and Daryl because she had considered him the real threat to her and Kale. And also because he fascinated her to a certain degree.

He was a hunter, just like her. He was quiet and kept to himself mostly except for when he spoke to his now missing or dead brother or when he had been spoken to. He took his responsibilities seriously.

She had also noticed that he had sharp eyes, which she supposed came from his tracking skills, but he was very observant as well. People pegged him for an uneducated hillbilly redneck but what he may or may not lack in book smarts he more than made up for in common sense and survival.

"Come on. We need to keep goin'." she heard Daryl say to the others.

They had been walking for an hour or so and Adrian still couldn't stop thinking about the gun shot that they had all heard a while back. "Why just one gun shot?" Lori asked after being asked if she was still thinking about the gun shot. "Maybe they took down a walker." Daryl suggested.

Lori gave him a do-I-look-dumb look and pointed out that Rick and Shane wouldn't waste a bullet on one walker. "She's right. They know the rule. Not gun fire unless absolutely necessary. Noise only draws more walkers." Adrian threw in.

Kale walked up to her but kept his voice low. "You doin' okay? You kinda look like you don't feel good." he pointed out to her. "It's just a gut feeling. Like something bad has happened. Other than rotting corpses trying to eat us." she said to the dark headed teen.

"I'll tell ya what it's worth. Nothin'. Hopin' an' prayin' ain't gonna find that little girl." she heard Daryl say to Carol and Andrea. "Am I the only one zen around here? Good lord." Daryl said as he turned his back on them and started walking off. She noticed that Lori had a small smile on her face at Daryl's words and also the look on Carol's face.

She hadn't had much interaction with the older woman but she decided to give it a small shot to help cheer her up, even if it was just a smidge. "Hopin' an' prayin' will only get us so far in our search. That's why we're all out here helpin' to look for her." Adrian said quietly to her before she headed off towards the front with Daryl.

She caught up to the redneck and had a smile on her face thinking back on his words. "Zen? Really?" she asked with a small laugh. "What about it?" he shot back. Adrian just laughed to herself before answering. "Nothing. Just never pegged you for someone who was "at peace" with yourself is all." she said using her fingers to make quotation marks.

They had been walking for a little while when a scream ripped through the air. Everyone looked around and noticed that Andrea was missing and took off in the direction of the screaming. They broke into a small clearing to see a slender, short haired brunette woman sitting atop a horse with Andrea on one side.

"Lori? Lori Grimes?" she asked the group. "That's me." Lori answered. "You need to come with me right now. Carl's been shot. He and Rick need you." she said to Lori. The only thing that Adrian seemed to register was that Carl had been shot. 'Oh God, please, not again!' was the only thought that seemed to keep screaming in Adrian's head. She thought she felt eyes on her but she wasn't sure. She then seen Lori climb onto the horse and the girl spoke to Glenn, giving him directions to her home and then took off. That was when she snapped. She turned until she met Kale's eyes.

"Take my bike when you get back to the highway. I expect you there tonight and I expect my ride to be in perfect condition. Do you understand me?" she practically commanded to the boy. She didn't even see him nod his head before she turned and took off like a wild hellhound in the direction that the horse had went.

She could hear Daryl in the background shouting at her to get back there but she just ignored his cries and kept running.

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She didn't know how long or how far she had ran when she broke from the woods and into a large field with overgrown golden grass. She stopped for a minute to give her burning lungs a break and took in the view in front of her. Across the field sat a white, two-story farm house.

It looked as if the world had never ended for this place. As if life had just continued as normal for these people. But she knew that it had to be mildly chaotic in that house right now, so she started running again towards the house.  
She didn't even bother opening the gate but put both hands on top of the metal door and jumped over it. She ran up the house and had managed to slow down to a jog when she reached the steps. She knew it was rude to just walk into someone's house, even if being polite was the last thing on most peoples minds these days, but she did it anyway.

She walked through the door and seen three people sitting in what appeared to be the living room and they all seemed surprised by her sudden intrusion, and rightly so. There was the tall brunette that had rode the horse to fetch Lori, an older man with white hair and a clean shaven face, and a petite blonde with curly hair.

She could hear the faint sounds of crying coming from a room to her left and turned sharply towards the door. "Now wait just one minute here!" she heard the man say as she walked to the door. Adrian stalked into the room but stopped cold only a few steps in.

Carl was laying on a bed covered with a white sheet, asleep and covered in a fine film of sweat. Lori was laying on the bed with Carl crying and holding onto his limp hand while Rick stood behind her holding her other hand. She noticed he looked really pale and had a rough bandage on his arm.

"Just who do you think you are, barging in here like this?" she heard the man from before say behind her, which drew Rick and Lori's attention to her and also seemed surprised by her presence. Which she guessed she would have been surprised by it too if she were them. "Adrian. What are you doin' here?" Rick asked as he walked away from Lori and towards her.

"Sorry, Hershal. She's another member of our group." Rick said to the man. She could still feel annoyance coming off of him but she ignored it. Rick looked at the strange red head and finally took notice of her appearance. Some of her hair had come loose of her braid and just hung around her face and shoulders. She was covered in dirt, sweat, and scratches but not really bleeding. She had a wild look in her bright green eyes but shock was written all over her face and she was breathing hard.

"How did you get here?" Rick asked, seeing if she would answer any of his questions but her focus seemed to be solely on Carl. "I ran." she finally panted out. "Took off after the horse full blast. Is he alright?" she asked finally looking at him. "For now. "He needs surgery. She was shot by accident and the bullet broke apart and he has internal bleeding. Shane and the man who shot him, Otis, went on a run to get some things that Hershal will need for the surgery." Rick told her.

"That was the shot we heard? What happened?" she asked him. Rick sighed. "We were walkin' when a deer came out. Carl was walkin' up to it and the next thing we knew, Carl had been shot and was on the ground. Otis was out huntin' the deer, didn't see Carl til after the fact." he told her.

Adrian's breathing finally slowed down and she took a deep breath trying to steady herself. "Well the group knows what's going on so they should be here at some point." she said to Rick but loud enough for Lori to hear too.

"Well I'll leave you two alone with him then. I'll be around if you need me. Just holler. I won't be far." she said placing her hand on his shoulder out of comfort more than anything.


	13. What a scare

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I realized when checking over my work on Fanfiction that the story seemed a little off, that I would have 14 chapters on my laptop but only 13 on Fanfiction. I have now realized that I never updated chapter 13. So chapter 13 is the new chapter but chapter 14 is probably the chapter that you have already read.  
**_

Chapter 13

After the group made it back to the highway the group convened to decide about who would stay and collect supplies for Sophia and who would go to the farm. "You gotta get T-Dog to that farm. His wound has went to long without treatment. He has one hell of an infection." Dale told Glenn who wasn't really happy about being made to go.

"And besides, I'm goin' too." Kale said to Glenn. "No, not you Kale. I don't want you ridin' that bike in the dark. Especially out here in unfamiliar territory." Daryl told Kale. "Whoa! No way man. Adrian told me for my ass to be at that farm tonight and I plan on being there." Kale retorted quickly.

"Do you even know how to ride that damn thing?" Daryl asked taking a step towards the teen. "Not good but well enough." Kale said taking a step back. "Alright then. I said you ain't goin', so you ain't fuckin' goin'." Daryl demanded.

"She told me to be there, dammit! And I'm more afraid of her than I am of you!  
I've seen her angry before and I don't wanna be on the other end it." Kale yelled at Daryl.

"Yeah, we've all seen her angry." Andrea threw at Kale. Kale gave a humorless laugh at Andrea's comment.

"What? This morning? You think that was her angry?" Kale asked pointing towards the RV.

"That wasn't her angry. That was just for shits and giggles. That was her slightly annoyed because you wouldn't shut up." Kale told her. Daryl walked up to Kale, invading his personal space, and pointed a dirty finger in the kids' face. "I said you ain't going, and damn it, I mean it." Daryl growled.

"If you get bit tryin' to get out there, then that's on me. And if you get bit then she gets angry and I don't wanna arrow in the ass or a knife in the eye. So you're stayin' here." Daryl said grabbing a handful of Kale's t-shirt. "Got it?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Got it." Kale growled knocking Daryl's arm away.

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It was after dark and Shane and Otis still weren't back from their run to get the necessary equipment Hershal would need to operate on Carl. Rick was sitting in one of the chairs by the bed, Lori was kneeling by the bed holding Carl's hand, and Adrian was leaning her back into a corner by the door.

Hershal came into the room to check on Carl when the boy surprised everyone and opened his eyes. "Mom. You should have seen it. The deer. It was so pretty." Carl told Lori. Carl continued to talk to his mother quietly for another minute when he suddenly stopped talking and went still.

Carl then started to violently convulse. Lori and Rick started to panic and throw questions at Hershal. "Don't hold him down, you could make him worse." Hershal told the shaken couple. "Can't you do something?!" Lori demanded. "No. It has to run it's course." Hershal told her.

Carl finally stopped convulsing and Hershal did a quick examination. "His brain isn't getting enough blood. He needs another transfusion." Hershal told them. "Here." Rick said to Hershal sticking out his arm to the man.

"Rick, you can't. You've already given two units. I take any more blood and your body could shut down." Hershal told Rick seriously. "What's his blood type?" Adrian asked at the foot of the bed. "A positive." Rick said to her. "It's your lucky day, Carl." Adrian said walking towards Hershal.

"Here, Doc." Adrian said sticking her arm out. "O positive. Now you got another body to tap for blood." she said as she sat in a chair she pulled up while Hershal tapped her arm looking for a viable vein.

Hershal stood back after hooking Adrian up for the transfusion. "He's going to need more blood after the surgery as well. I'll have to take it from you. Rick has given too much already." Hershal told her. "Do what you gotta do, Doc." she said as she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

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Adrian was leaning against the porch railing munching on a sandwich that Maggie had fixed her and sipping on a glass of orange juice, which she hated, when she seen a pair of headlights pull up to the house.

Glenn and T-Dog, who looked worse than he had the last time she had seen him, walk up to the house. They were discussing on how to enter the house when Maggie spoke up from a semi-dark corner. "Um, we have some antibiotics and some pain killers for Carl if you need them." Glenn stammered holding to fairly large orange bottles.

"Who was hoarding those?" Adrian asked from her dark spot behind T-Dog and Glenn. T-Dog jumped and turned to look at her but it was Glenn's reaction that caused her to laugh. His entire body jumped as if someone had just stuck a live wire up his ass. He turned towards her and looked a little pale from the scare and she would bet Kale's favorite shotgun that his heart was racing like a motherfucker as well.

"Daryl. He had Merle's bag of pills in his one of his saddle bags on his bike." Glenn said a little breathlessly. Adrian looked back out into the dark. "Kale ain't comin'." she heard T-Dog say. She looked at him with a curious expression but didn't say anything.

"Daryl told him that he wasn't allowed to come. Didn't want him riding that motorcycle in the dark in unfamiliar territory when Kale didn't really know how to drive it. Kale seemed pretty upset. Said that he was more scared of you than Daryl." Glenn told her.

"Ah." Adrian said taking a sip of her orange juice. "I bet he was upset. Don't take much to get that kids panties in a twist. I'll straighten it out with him when they get here tomorrow." she told them. "Alright, lets get you two inside. T-Dog, I'm not much for others pain but I'm bored so your pain will just have to amuse me." Adrian said jokingly to the black man as they walked into the house.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Adrian never got to enjoy T-Dog' pain because shortly after their arrival, Shane showed up, limping, with the equipment that Hershal needed to operate on Carl. Hershal asked about Otis since the man appeared to be missing and Shane told them that he didn't make it.

Hershal ordered everyone out of the room except for Adrian since he would need her for another transfusion. She became extremely uncomfortable being in the room while they were operating on Carl, so she stood by the window and looked outside.

Patricia hooked her up to Carl and she and Hershal left the room. A few minutes later she heard crying from inside the house and assumed that Patricia had finally been told about Otis. Adrian didn't know the man but he seemed a decent, likable sort of man.

After a while Adrian started to feel a little light headed so she got as comfy as she could in the hard back chair and closed her eyes. After a few minutes she fell into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

When Adrian woke up is was bright and sunny outside and sunshine was streaming in through the window. Adrian knew that her body wasn't right but she couldn't really remember why. Then she took note of Carl laying on the bed.

She remembered running all the way to the farm house they were currently at and then telling Hershal to take as much of her blood as Carl needed. _'Must've taken too much.'_ she thought as she finally noticed how light headed she felt and how dry her mouth was.

_ 'Cotton mouth is always a bitch.'_ she thought trying to somehow magically conjure up moisture into her mouth. Adrian sat up, to what her mind thought was slowly, but her body told her that it was too quickly by placing white spots behind her eyes.

She sat still until the spots went away and then, super slowly, she stood up and was slightly alarmed that her legs her shaking under her weight, which wasn't much since this whole thing started. She reached out and put her hand on the nightstand to help steady her as she walked up to the head of the bed to check on Carl.

She then looked over at the window and slowly made her way towards it. When she finally got there she looked outside to see that it looked as if the world had never changed. The fields were were full of nothing but overgrown grass, the stables had healthy horses, and even the trees were baring fruit.

She didn't know how Hershal and his family had gotten so lucky as to have lived in a place that was still untouched by the horror movie that was now their daily lives. It had been months since the outbreak but this farm house and surrounding land was as close to heaven as people could get these days.

Adrian heard the very faint sound of Daryl's motorcycle before she seen the small caravan making its way up the dirt path. "Well now, lets go see what the rest of the crew is up to, shall we?" Adrian asked as she slowly made her way towards the bedroom door to go outside and greet the rest of the group._****_


	14. After Dark

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: Sorry for the mix up guys.  
**_

Chapter 14

Adrian knew she was weak from all the donated blood, but by the time she reached the front door it was all she could do just to stand up straight with her legs shaking. _'Like a child shaking jello.'_ she mocked herself as she looked down at her almost useless legs.

Adrian pushed open the screen door to see everyone outside, minus Carl. She heard Rick and Lori telling the other members of the group about Carl's condition and seen Kale making his way towards her. She knew she probably shouldn't attempt to try something so stupid as to climb down stairs in her condition but she wasn't known for always making wise decisions.

She slowly walked past the others on the porch and slowly made her way down the steps while holding onto the rail. Her legs were getting worse by the minute and just prayed that she got to Kale, or that he got to her, before her legs gave out.

Kale was making his way towards Adrian and took notice of her appearance. She looked terrible. She looked more like death than he had ever seen her before. Her braid wasn't as tight as it had been yesterday and there were stray locks of red hair that were now framing her pale, tired looking face.

Her normally pale skin looked even paler than usual. Her normally ivory colored skin was so white that the bright blue color of her veins was noticeable even from where he was standing. She looked more tired and worn out than he had seen her in a long time.

She had streaks of dirt on her face and arms and even some mud stains on her jeans. He also noticed that she didn't look very steady. He may not have known her for a very long time now, but she had taught him quickly that in this world you take notice of your surroundings and the little things quickly. Her words had proven themselves more than once since they had been together.

Kale was only a few steps from her when her legs finally gave out. He had seen her start to fall and sprang forward to catch her. Luckily he was able to wrap his arms around her waist before she fell too far. She was breathing a little hard and wrapped a limp arm around his shoulder and he gently helped her to settle on the ground to rest.

Adrian's fall seemed to have caused quite a stir with the other members. Probably because she seemed to carry that air of invincibility around her all the time that it was shocking to see her so weak. Adrian caught sight of Daryl standing off to the side by his bike and locked eyes with him. Daryl looked back at her over the young boys' shoulder and seen her give him a small nod before she turned her attention back to the boy.

"She shouldn't be out here. She gave too much blood to the boy last night. Realistically it's a miracle that her body hasn't attempted to shut down on her." they heard Hershal say. "Well, I haven't always been known for my smart decisions." she laughed weakly.

After her breathing slowed down some Adrian took a deep breath and spoke. "Alright Kale. Help me get my weak ass off the ground and inside so the Doc can check me over." she told the boy. Kale got on his feet and pulled her limp arm tighter across his shoulders while he wrapped his arm tightly around her waist. He slowly stood up with her and helped her up the stairs and into the house.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The sun had set hours ago and it was now well past dark. Hershal had told Rick that the group could set up shop a few hundred yards from the house. While Hershal had been checking Adrian over, who almost had to be force fed a sandwich and another glass of orange juice, Kale had been ordered to go outside and set up their tents.

It seemed that he was almost happy to be given orders to follow from Adrian. Hershal had been adamant about her staying in the house at least another night but Adrian had firmly refused saying that there was nothing wrong with her that a little food and rest wouldn't cure. And, as usual, Adrian did what she wanted against the wishes of others.

When it came time for dinner Kale had ordered Adrian to stay on her cot in her tent and let him bring her something. She knew that her weak condition worried him so she humored him by following his order. Honestly she had been a little choked that he had pulled enough courage together to order her to do anything.

She was pretty sure he still felt the bruising in his boney ass from the first few times he had tried to order her to do anything. But he was a good kid, so she decided to humor him until she was feeling better.

While she ate her "dinner", which consisted of a pack of turkey sausage and a warm bottle of powerade, Kale told her about how he would have been to the farm sooner but Daryl had told him that he would shoot his ass if he tried to leave for the farm. Especially since he didn't really know how to drive the motorcycle in the first place and how later Daryl had went out with Andria to look for Sophia while he had helped Dale keep watch.

Adrian could see that Kale was forming a friendship with the older man. Maybe because he reminded of someone from his family or something. Adrian had to admit that the old man had a certain charm about him that made him likeable. Adrian wished that her father had been more like him. But her grandfather had been alot like Dale so maybe that was part of the reason she encouraged Kale's growing friendship with him.

Kale had made sure that Adrian was all set for the night and didn't need anything before he retired for the night. Adrian had dressed in a pair of black basketball shorts and a black tank top for the night and decided that she had something to do, which was best done when everyone was sleeping so it wouldn't be weird for everyone.

Before she made her bare footed way, Adrian decided to peek in on Kale. Giving a small smile at seeing her chick in his nest so to speak, Adrian made her way over to Daryl's tent. She knew he wasn't asleep because she seen the low lantern light from inside his tent.

"Daryl?" she asked in a low voice so he would know that she was there. "Can I talk to you for a minute please?" she asked not wanting to barrel into his space. A few seconds later she heard the zipper of the tent and the flap fall open. Daryl was sitting on the floor of the tent sharpening his knife, still in his jeans and he must have put on another shirt because it wasn't the same one she had seen him in a few hours before.

Not wanting to make either one of them uncomfortable by taking a seat inside, Adrian took a seat by the chair by the tent opening. After she sat down she felt a sigh of relief push past her lips. "Should you be out by yourself? Much less walking?" Daryl finally asked after a few minutes of silence. "I'm weak, not dying of terminal cancer. Although with the way Kale is acting, you would think I was." Adrian said with a small laugh.

"It's only because he cares." Daryl said, which was a little weird hearing such a nice comment leave his mouth. Especially about somebody else. "I know. I wanted to say thank you. Kale told me about what happened after y'all got back to the highway. It was smart of you to keep him from driving away on that bike when he didn't really know how to drive it. It never occurred to me that he didn't know how to drive it." she said watching him as he kept sharpening his knife.

"Might've been a good thing to know before you demanded that kid to drive it to an unknown location. Especially with walkers everywhere. Kid coulda gotten bit and it woulda been your fault." he said discreetly looking up at her reaction. He expected a look of guilt. He didn't expect the withdrawn look she now had on. "Wouldn't be the first time I got someone killed." she whispered more to herself than to him.

Daryl decided to get a good look at this side of Adrian. The normal tough, kick ass woman was still there, but it seemed that somebody else had com out to play during this conversation. He could see her arms and the top of her chest and back earlier in the day and had taken close notice of all of the scars she carried. He looked at her calfs and feet and noticed that there were scars there as well. Not nearly as many as he had seen earlier, but he knew a scar when he seen one.

She seemed to have gotten lost in thought because her normally unreadable green eyes were unfocused and glassy. And full of emotion. Most of all pain. Damaged souls tended to recognize one another. He had noticed that she was still pale, not her normal pale, but she had gotten a little of her color back since they had shown up today. It had worried him a little bit to see her so weak that she collapsed after they had all arrived. Luckily she had had enough sense to have the kid drag her back inside for the Doc to check her out. And her hair was loose. That was a little unnerving.

Daryl had a certain image in his head about who and what Adrian Hunter was supposed to look and act like. And the woman sitting just outside of his tent was not her. She looked small, pale, guilty, and vulnerable. The Adrian he had come to know was a tough as nails woman who was strong enough to survive this new world they now lived in. She was smart, resourceful, kind when the occasion called for it, and gave out verbal ass kickings like free candy at a kids' party.

She was also loyal to those who earned it and made sure that the weaker members of the group that couldn't look after themselves properly, like the kids, were looked out for as best as possible.

"Anyway." Adrian said cutting into Daryl's thoughts. "I just wanted to come by and say thanks for watching out for Kale after giving him a poor order. Kale's all I've really got these days and I would take his loss really hard if anything were to happen to him. Especially if it was because of me." she said slowly getting up from the chair.

"Oh, and Daryl?" she said looking down at him. "If you ever shoot my partner, you'll get an ass kicking like this new world has never seen." she said with a small smile and carefully made her way back towards her tent for some much needed rest.


	15. One unlucky day

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I hope I didn't get everyone too confused with my mix up with the chapters. Anyway here is chapter 15 so I hope yall enjoy. I have also decided to start spacing out my updates. I figure once or twice a week should do if everything keeps going well for my writing. I am already up to chapter 18 and hope to keep doing well.**_

Chapter 15

Adrian had said she was well enough to attend the service that they were holding for Otis but it seemed that everybody who had some bit of authority, Rick, Kale, and Hershal, had told her to stay inside with Carl.

The boy had woken up briefly before the funeral began and had asked about Sophia. Not wanting to upset his son, Rick told him that Sophia was okay and safe. A white lie to be sure, but forgivable if the lie put Carl's mind to rest enough for him to rest for a while longer.

She had heard earlier about how Shane had helped to save Carl, which he had helped. But she had her doubts about Shane's story about how things went down at the high school. Maybe it was just her because she had hated not only Shane since she had first set eyes on him, but also every word that came out of his mouth. But she didn't think that she was wrong about this because her gut told her otherwise. And so far her gut had helped keep her alive.

After the service, and a forced sandwich and another glass of the much hated orange juice, Adrian decided to go outside for some fresh air and sunshine. She seen that Rick, Daryl, Shane, Andrea, Hershal, and his daughter Maggie were all gathered around the hood of one of the vehicles.

After walking closer she heard Rick talk about getting a proper hunting party together to look for Sophia. She then heard Hershal tell Rick and Shane that they couldn't go. "Just me then." she heard Daryl say.

"I'm going too." she said from behind them. They all turned to look at her. "You certainly can't go. You gave more blood that Rick did. Even put the IV back in after I took it out the other night. You need food and rest more than anybody right now." Hershal told her.

"None of you can stop me from going. I'm going to help look for the girl. If  
you're so worried about me, I'll take Kale. He can be my official babysitter." Adrian said defiantly. "Me and Kale did just fine on our own before we hooked up with y'all. Besides, I trust him the most to watch my ass with the sorry state I'm in." she added.

"Well if we're gonna be doin' this, we're gonna need our guns and more than half of us can't shoot for shit. They need gun training like we've been promising." Shane said since it was obvious that Adrian was going to do what she wanted no matter what anybody said.

"I'd rather nobody carried guns on my property. We've done fine for ourselves so far without guns. I'd rather keep it that way." Hershal said. "That's all fine and dandy until you get a herd of walkers through here and then you're gonna wish you had alot a guns." Shane said trying to make a point.

"His land, his rules." Rick said putting his gun on the hood of the jeep. Shane put his gun on the hood as well, even though he was extremely unhappy about it. Then Rick, Shane, and Andrea looked at Adrian as if waiting for something.

"Do I look like I have my gun on me right now?" she said a tad bit annoyed. Then she looked at Hershal. "I respect that this is your land and you don't want guns here. But my man doesn't know how to use anything else as good as he does a gun. When we go past that tree line, we will be packing heat, although I rarely use mine. After me and my partner get back from looking for the girl, our guns will go in our tents, where they will stay until we go back out looking for the girl." Adrian said to the old doctor.

"Now Adrian-" Rick started only to be cut off. "Shut up, Rick." she said never looking at him. "Is that good enough for you Mr. Greene?" Adrian asked him. After a long moment of silence and a heavy sigh Hershal finally answered. "I guess it will have to be." he said none too happily.

"Thank you. Now I'm going to get cleaned up, grab Kale, and go look for Sophia." she said firmly walking away from the group in order to track down Kale and tell him that as of now, he was being voluntold to be her babysitter in the woods until she said otherwise.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Adrian and Kale had had no luck in finding anything on their search that day, unlike Daryl who had found a place where she had possibly holed up for a while. Adrian had seen the pretty white flower that Daryl had brought back for Carol but didn't say anything.

It was after midnight and sleep was being an elusive bitch because Adrian  
couldn't sleep no matter what she did. Dressed in her black basketball shorts, a black tank top, and her hair down for the night, Adrian walked towards the house bare footed to check in on Carl.

As she silently walked into the house she began to finger the black wristband on her wrist. Kale had made sure to keep her fed and watered during their hunt that day so she was feeling more like her old self.

She walked into Carl's room to see Rick sleeping in a chair beside the bed. Walking towards the other side of the bed, Adrian slowly sat down so as to not wake the boy and propped a leg up on the bed while she just starred at Carl in the dim lamp light.

"You know you have an unhealthy obsession with my son." Adrian heard the quiet voice from the doorway. Turning, Adrian seen Lori standing in the door just behind Rick. "And I don't like it." she added now glaring at Adrian.

"It's not unhealthy to look after someone who needs it." she said with a serious face. "Carl doesn't need you to look after him. He has me, and Rick, and everyone else in the group to do that." Lori said angrily.

"Yeah, bang up job y'all were doin' when I found him in a tree, miles from camp, with no protection of his own of any kind, and three walkers snappin' at his feet!" Adrian whispered starting to get annoyed with the woman.

When Lori had walked into Carl's room to find Adrian sitting on his bed starring at him, Lori instantly became annoyed at the red headed woman. She had on a pair of black cotton basketball shorts and a black cotton tank top with her feet bare and her hair loose. At first glance, Adrian had looked so young and sad before Lori had said anything. When Adrian had looked up at her, Lori disliked her even more. Wide, bright green eyes, long, wavy red-orange hair, pale skin that was covered in scars from what Lori could tell. All in all, she was beautiful, unpredictable, and her son liked the woman and it just made Lori dislike the girl even more.

"He shouldn't have been out there in the first place." Lori finally said. "You're right. He shouldn't have. And he wouldn't have been if someone had been keeping a proper eye on him. At least when I sent him back to his camp of people he had a damned knife. Which is more than he had to protect himself with when I found him. He's your son, and I understand that more than you'll ever know, but he can't afford to be a child anymore Lori. This is a harsh world we live in now and he's going to have to grow up fast to survive it." Adrian said angrily, getting off the bed.

"I understand that you want to protect him from all of the bad stuff in the world, but one day you aren't going to be here to protect him from all of the bad stuff an then what? He won't know how to survive or protect himself and he won't stand a chance." Adrian growled and then stormed out of the room leaving Lori to her new thoughts.

Adrian left early the next morning to go hunting. She knew she should be looking for Sophia more than she should be hunting so she kept an eye out for any other tracks besides animals. Looking up into the sky Adrian realized she had been out hunting for at least seven hours. She looked at what game she had killed during that time and was satisfied with her kill.

_ 'Ten squirrels, five rabbits, even managed to round up a dozen fish. Not too bad.'_ Adrian thought to herself. Adrian was on her way back to camp when she heard voices not too far off. Knowing she couldn't very well ignore the voices, Adrian quietly stalked towards them.

Once she got close enough, she realized that the voices belonged to Rick and Shane who seemed to be having a somewhat heated discussion. Not wanting to make her presence known, she kept herself hidden. After they wondered off, Adrian took off back towards the farm.

After she broke the tree line Adrian seen Dale on top of his RV looking out in her direction. Letting him know that she was a friendly, she waved. Glenn and Kale met her at the fence.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Kale demanded before Glenn even got his mouth open. "Since you asked the stupid question first, you get to skin and gut these. All of them." Adrian said to the frustrated teen throwing him the dozen big, fat fish she managed to fish out of a shallow river.

"Ah man, why do I have to do the fish?" Kale whined as she walked past him. "I told you. You asked the stupid question first." she said laughing at Kale's displeasure at having to deal with the fish. "But why would you go hunting? The reason Otis was out so far from the farm was because there were no more deer around here." Glenn asked seeming confused as to why she would even bother hunting.

"I wasn't hunting deer. I was looking for smaller game. Which is exactly what I found. I even found some hog tracks. Can't tell how old they are, but if we're lucky I can kill a nice big fat one in the next few days." she said throwing her string of squirrels and rabbits onto an old picnic table.

"Where's Hershal?" Adrian asked both Kale and Glenn. "In the house, I think. Why?" Glenn answered. Adrian walked off without a word of explanation.

Adrian was hot, sweaty and covered in dirt and animal blood but she didn't care as she walked into Hershal's pretty, clean house. She found him eating his lunch in the dining room. "Hershal, may I have a word with you privately?" she said when she stopped at the table. "I'm eating my lunch. Can it wait?" he asked never looking up from whatever book it was he was reading from.

"If I were a nice, polite person I would say yes, but I'm neither nice nor polite, so no, it can't wait." she said firmly to the old man knowing she was being rude. With a great sigh of annoyance Hershal stopped reading his book and looked up at her.  
Her skin was flushed from the heat of the day, which had also caused sweat to pour from her, her hair looked damp as if she had gotten it wet recently, almost every inch of her was covered in either dust or dirt and she had blood in a few places on her jeans. All in all she looked a mess ad Hershal didn't want to be around the rude young woman longer than necessary.

"So what is so important that you had to disturb me in the middle of my meal?" he asked.

"You don't want to have this conversation here." she said walking towards a small little office she had found the night before while she had been exploring the house. Hershal closed the door behind him.

"Want to tell me why you mysteriously know the layout of my home when you have hardly been inside of it?" Hershal asked with an impatient tone. Adrian was quiet for a moment. Then she answered with a question of her own.

"Want to tell me why you have a barn full of dead people?" she asked looking him in the eye in all of her dirty glory.


	16. One seriously shitty day

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I have decided that the way that I will update is once during the week and once during the weekend but I won't be near my computer to update this weekend so I am updating this chapter early.**_

_**I am now several chapters ahead and am doing great so I hope yall read and enjoy.**_

Chapter 16

Adrian never took her eyes off of Hershal after dropping her bomb. "I don't know what you're talking about." Hershal said. "Don't play dumb with me, Hershal. You're too smart a man to play dumb and you should know by now that I'm smart enough to have proof before being up such a subject." she said.

"I went hunting early this morning. Except I didn't go through the field. I walked by the barn. You've been pretty adamant about keeping us away from that place. It's pretty far out in the middle of nowhere out here. So why, after everything went down and there are so few humans left, would you not only bar the barn doors but chain them? If it was to keep something as simple as farming equipment inside, barring the door should be enough. But keeping alot of something dangerous in such a place, now that's a good reason to lock up those doors pretty tight." she said as her muscles started to tense up.

"They're sick people. There are people I care about in that barn and I won't let the likes of you people tell me how to handle them." Hershal demanded firmly but his tone just rolled off of Adrian.

"Sick people? Is that what you think they are?" she asked confused. "Yes. It's only a matter of time before a cure it made and then they can get better." he said firmly believing what he said.

"A cure? Seriously? And just who is going to make this miracle cure, Hershal? We don't have doctors or chemists anymore Hershal. So just who in the hell is going to make this cure for these so called sick people?" Adrian demanded taking a few steps towards the older man.

"It's just another disease. Just like yellow fever and the plague. A cure will come around eventually." he said.

"Yellow fever and the plague never had a cure, Hershal! It killed hundreds of thousands of people! And those diseases didn't bring people back from the dead to eat people! They had the good sense to stay dead! There is no cure coming Hershal! You don't like me or Rick's people, fine whatever, no skin off my nose. But you have a barn full of dead people and you have you, your daughters, and Patricia living a stones throw away from them. You don't like me because I'm rude, impatient, and don't know my place. But I'm a realist dammit! I don't have the luxury to be nieve about other peoples safety." she hissed angrily at the man.

"You're right. I don't like you much. You don't listen to what people tell you, you're rude, explore places you shouldn't, like my house at night obviously." Hershal said.

"Well all I have to say is that I hope you have some form of protection around here because when those things get out, and they will at some point. I just hope you have the courage to put everyone out of their misery, whether it be them or your family." she said before she stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her.

"Hey, Dale. You seen Daryl around? I was gonna go with him to help look for Sophia today." Adrian called up to Dale, who was on top of the RV. "He took a horse and left out hours ago." Dale said back. Looking towards the woods across the field, Adrian suddenly got a gut feeling that something wasn't right. "Thanks Dale." she said walking towards her tent.

"Kale. Skin and gut the rest of the game." Adrian said as she passed the boy. Looking up from gutting the fish in front of him, Kale noticed that Adrian was practically geared up for war. "Roger." he said going back to cleaning the fish. An hour later, Kale was cleaning the last of the rabbits when Shane showed up. "Where the hell did all of this come from?" he asked like the prick he was.

"Adrian went hunting this morning." Kale clipped out, not wanting to talk to the ill tempered man anymore than he had too. "So why the hell ain't she the one cleanin' 'em?" Shane scoffed. "She went off into the woods again." he sain never looking up.

"So why the hell didn't she tell anybody else. You special or somethin'?" Shane demanded, not liking that the woman walked around camp as if she owned the place. Kale scoffed. "And you think she told me where she was going, why?" Kale asked.

"If she didn't tell you then how in the hell do you know where she went? Why don't you stop talkin' in riddles all the damn time an' just give me a straight answer." Shane said loosing his temper.

"Because I actually pay attention to shit. She was geared up for war pretty much. Bow and arrows, knife, and gun. Now that you know where she is, not that it's any of your business, will you leave me alone now. Besides, she went hunting this morning to bring food back for everybody, so why don't you stop complainin'." Kale said basically dismissing the older man.

Shane stalked away without another word.

After Dale had told her that Daryl had taken a horse out to look for Sophia this morning, Adrian had gotten a bad feeling which was why she had decided to go look for him. And she hated when her gut was right about something because she knew something wasn't right when she had seen saddled horse with no rider running through the trees.  
Knowing that there was no chance of actually catching the horse she let it go on  
it's way and kept following the horse tracks she had been following since she left the farm. Adrian had been following the tracks for a few hours when she found where she assumed was the place where Daryl and the horse got separated. Which looked like ended at the bottom of a very steep hill.

"Damn it, man. Seriously?" Adrian muttered to herself. Giving a heavy sigh Adrian strapped her bow to her back and slowly started her decent down the hill.

About half way down Adrian had noticed some blood and kept finding traces of it the rest of the way down the hill. Once she had reached the bottom she noticed a nice sized smear of blood on the rocks before it led into the creek. She didn't know how long ago he had been here, but he had been here at some point today. What worried her though was that she didn't know how badly he was hurt. And if he had been seriously hurt he might not be able to fight any walkers he came across and she also knew he had few arrows left.

Looking towards the bank on the other side of the creek she seen the dead bodies of two walkers. "Looks like I get to go swimming twice in one day. Can't ask for more than that these days." Adrian laughed to herself as she dove into the shallow creek water, knowing she shouldn't get her gun wet but didn't really care.

Getting to the other side she discovered not only the dead bodies of the walkers but also a squirrel carcass sitting on a log. She walked to the hill an looked up.

"Damn these steep hills." she muttered to herself. She seen a spot that looked pretty disturbed and decided that that must be the place where Daryl had started to climb up. The higher she climbed, the more her suspicion was confirmed. By the time she she reached the top she was dripping sweat.

Once she got to the top she sat down for a minute to catch her breath. She she looked up, she noticed a trail of boot prints and drag marks beside them. After another hour of following the tracks, Adrian finally made it to the tree line.

She just walked out into the field only to see Glenn, Rick, T-Dog, and Shane all armed standing in from of what seemed to be a walker but none of them had attacked it and then she looked down to notice the crossbow being dragged behind it and realized that it was Daryl.

And then she seen Daryl drop like a hot brick moments before she felt a flash of burning pain on her left cheek. "No!" she heard someone yell. "No!" they yelled again. Adrian looked towards the group to see them all running towards Daryl who was on the ground. "Daryl!" she shouted before she ran towards the small group of men. She had just reached them when she heard Daryl's shocked voice. "I was just kiddin' man."

"Good Lord, Adrian, are you okay?" Adrian heard T-Dog's shocked voice ask her. She looked at T-Dog confused but then remembered the pain in her cheek. Reaching up to touch it she pulled her fingers back to see them coated in blood. When she looked up she seen that Shane and Rick were carrying an unconscious Daryl.

They all made it back to the house and Shane and Rick took him inside for Hershal to check over. Hershal also told her to come inside so he could take a look at her face. About the time they got Daryl inside and on a bed, Daryl was awake but wasn't complaining about being in any pain. When Hershal tried to look at her first, she insisted that he deal with Daryl first while she went to go wash up.

She walked into the bathroom and turned on the cold water and then wet a rag she had grabbed. Looking up into the mirror gave her a bit of a shock to see the bloody and filthy woman starring back at her. Knowing that Hershal would be with Daryl for a while, she cleaned her cheek and noticed that she had a nice sized bullet graze now gracing her cheek.

Touching the sore cut a thought occurred to her and she headed outside to her tent and then took back off towards the woods while Hershal tended to Daryl's wounds.

Adrian made it back to the farm just before sundown. She noticed that nobody was outside and remembered hearing one of the women say something about cooking inside for Hershal's family. Not really in a mood to be around people Adrian went into her tent and looked around in one of her bags until she found what she was looking for.

She placed the ceramic mortar and pestle on her tent floor, grabbed a book, a bottle of water, and got to work.

An hour later everyone way coming outside when Adrian walked by them and into the house seeking out Hershal. Finding him on the second floor walking out of the room Daryl was in she asked if she had permission to take a quick shower. After a reluctant yes Adrian went to the bathroom and quickly took a lukewarm shower not wanting to get used to hot water.

After a 15 minute shower, Adrian stepped out of the tub and loved the feeling of feeling human again. She put on a pair of grey baggy sweatpants, a thin, black cotton long sleeve, and brushed her long hair out.

Adrian left the bathroom with her dirty clothes and silently made her way to Daryl's room. He must not have heard her open the door because it wasn't until he heard the click of the door closing that he turned around.

He looked her up and down before he said anything. "What're you doin' here? Figured you'd be sleepin' by now." he said as he pulled the sheet up over his torso.

"Little pointless hiding what I already know is there, isn't it?" she asked in a soft voice. _'Dammit.'_ Daryl thought, forgetting that she already knew about his scars. "You never answered my question. What're you doin' here?" he asked again starting to get uncomfortable. "Brought you something." she said holding up an old, beat up Altiods can. "And why would I need those?" Daryl asked confused.

Dropping her clothes by the door, Adrian walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. "It's not candy, dick." she said lightly laughing. "It's medicine." she said reaching for the bandage wrapped around his head.

"Hershal already gave me some, so quit." Daryl said now really uncomfortable.

"Stop arguing like a woman and be still." she said after she took the bandage off and putting it aside. She looked at the graze on his head and then grabbed the small tin can and popped it open to reveal a tin packed full of grimy green goo.

"You ain't puttin' that shit on me." Daryl said starting to move away from her. She grabbed a handful of hair on the uninjured side of his head and pulled his head back.

"Shut up. It's just herbal medicine you big tit sack." she said lightly applying the herbal medicine. "Where the hell did you get that stuff anyway?" Daryl asked still eyeing the tin can.

"There's this nice little apothecary shop down the road. Went in and told the guy what I needed. The woods, you idiot, where else would I get it?" she said with a straight face, minus the small twitch of her lips to keep herself from smiling.

"I went back out after they got you up here to go and look for the plants I needed and made it myself back in my tent. My grandfather liked his herbal medicines and taught me a bit while I stayed with him. As I got older I discovered that I like some herbal medicines better than store bought meds so I picked up some books about herbal plants and such. Never thought that they would be useful when I bought them." she said finally taking pity on him so he would loosen up a bit.

"What happened to your face?" he finally asked after a long silent minute. "The same thing that happened to your head. Andrea's bullet decided to feel special and hit two targets instead of just one today." she said getting up off the bed and grabbing the sheet to pull it down. Daryl grabbed it first and firmly help it up. Adrian gave him an exasperated look.

"Really? I'm just putting some medicine on the would on your waist. No big deal." she said but he didn't let g of the sheet. She threw her head back and gave a heavy sigh. "Fine. If I show you mine, will you show me yours?" she asked gesturing towards his covered torso.

"Excuse me?" Daryl asked shocked and confused.

Adrian placed the herbal can on the night stand and grabbed the hem of her shirt and pulled it over her head quickly.

Daryl was not only shocked but uncomfortable to untold degree. Then he noticed the scars. There weren't many but the ones that were there were long. There were a few dark pink scars that he could make out over places where her vital organs were, such as her liver and kidneys. The scar that drew th most attention though was the long light pink line that reached from the middle of her ribcage and went downward and continued towards her waist and her back.

He looked up from her stomach, seen her light grey sports bra, and up towards her face to see her not only looking as uncomfortable as him but also blushing as if extremely embarrassed.

"There now will you let me do what I came to do so I can gt outta here? Hershal doesn't like me in the house at night." Adrian said quickly grabbing the sheet and pulled it down. She didn't take the bandage around his torso off like she did with his head, only loosened it so she could pull it down.

"So." Daryl said in the uncomfortable silence. "Why did you go out and get all the stuff to make this anyway?" Daryl asked knowing that even if he asked about the scars she wouldn't answer. He wouldn't, had someone asked him.

"Call it an apology for not finding you in time to keep you from getting shot. I was only a few minutes behind you. Had only just came outta the woods when that bullet whizzed by." she said not looking him in the face.

"You went looking for me? Why?" Daryl asked, now really confused. Even if anybody else in the camp could have tracked like he could, they wouldn't have.

"Dale told me that you had gone off looking for Sophia. After he told me that I got a bad feeling in my gut. I've always had a good sixth sense for trouble so when it comes a callin', I answer. Hasn't steered me wrong so far." she said still not looking at him.

She finished applying the medicine to both stitched up sides of the arrow wound, retightened the bandage, and got up. She picked up her discarded shirt from the floor and quickly put it back on.

"I'll pop by your tent sometime tomorrow to put some more of this stuff on those wounds. Can't keep depending on modern medicine now a days." she said quickly gathering her clothes and walking out of the room, and the house, without o much as a backwards glance.


	17. Letting Go

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So normally I don't like it when people put lyrics in a fic, but I thought I would just throw it out there for those of you who don't listen to that kind of music. Also I do realize that the real airing for both Radioactive and Titanium would have been after the Z.A. But I would like you to listen to both songs but listen to the Madilyn Bailey versions of the songs. It's kinda what I imagine Adrian sounds like. **_

Chapter 17

The next day Adrian decided to stay around camp since she had been gone so much and there was plenty for her to do. She started her day out cleaning her's and  
Kale's weapons, along with sharpening some suitable branches she had found while out yesterday. After that she did hers' and Kale's laundry, which had been held off for as long as possible because she hated the chore.

She still couldn't dig up the courage to see Daryl after what she had showed him last night so she had sent Kale to Daryl's tent with the herbal tin with instructions to leave it with him.

She had been on top of the RV keeping watch when she heard Carl talking to Shane about learning to shoot. Apparently Carl had somehow gotten his hands on a pistol and seemed to have made Shane angry, which wasn't very hard to do.

She couldn't fault Shane for caring about the kid. He was the son of his best friend, and the woman he was in love with. She could fault him, however, for caring too much. Adrian knew that she had crowded Carl alot lately and had backed off so Lori wouldn't feel so threatened.

Shane wasn't Carl's father and had lost sight of the fact somewhere along the way. It had been commendable that he had stepped up to the plate to make sure Lori and Carl, along with everyone else at the camp in the canyon, were safe. But he had overstepped when he had started seeing Lori and Carl as his family, instead of Rick's.

And now that Rick was back, she could see the longing, envy, and jealousy in Shane's eyes. And it grew more every day. She made a note to start keeping a closer eye on him, because out of all of them, Shane was likely to snap first. And her gut was telling her it wasn't going to be much longer before that happened. And she hoped that she wouldn't be forced to do something that would change the other's view on her.

She remembered first time she had been forced to defend her's and Kale's camp against people who meant them harm. Kale had been wary of her for a full week, looking at her as if she were some kind of monster.

A while later Rick, Shane, Lori, and Dale were all talking about Carl having the gun. Lori still didn't want Carl to have anything to do with them but she was glad that Rick seen the sense in Carl learning how to use and carry a gun around now that he was up and walking. Rick and Carl finally convinced Lori to let Carl attend the gun training, Adrian was glad for it, but she didn't say anything.

Shortly after everyone except for Dale, Adrian, Glenn, Kale, Maggie, Hershal, and Daryl left for the off sight gun training. A few minutes later Kale came up the ladder to the top of the RV. "What are you doin' up here? Afraid I'll leave on you again?" Adrian asked looking around for anything out of the ordinary. "You've been leaving out on your own too much lately, Adrian. I don't like it." Kale said not liking that she was making light of the subject.

"The barn's full of walkers and Lori's pregnant." Adrian and Kale heard Glenn say in a hurried but somewhat quiet voice. Adrian looked in the direction the statement had come from to see Glenn talking to Dale. Kale looked at Adrian his face showing his shock and surprise. And then he noticed her lack of reaction to the statement. "You knew?!" Kale hissed at her. "I knew about the walkers. I didn't know that Lori was knocked up though. Don't know why I'm surprised, with the number of times I happened upon her and Shane while I was out huntin'." she said looking up at the young man.

"How come you didn't tell me?" Kale asked a little disappointed that she would keep something like that from him. "Because he can hold a secret about as well as Glenn can." she said grinning up at him. "That's not fair. I haven't said a word about everything you've told me about your past." Kale said sitting down beside her.

"That's because you know I would skin you alive and use your hide for walker coverage if you told these people my business. My past is my business, not their's. Walkers in the barn and Lori being pregnant effects everyone. Both things put everyone in danger. I talked to Hershal about it and he wants the barn left alone. I may be a supreme bitch but I'm gonna respect that he doesn't want the barn messed with. Or what's inside of it. And when the time comes that people take action, I won't tell you what to do." she said looking at Kale.

"What?" Kale asked in disbelief. He knew that everyone saw him as Adrian's lapdog because he always followed her orders and rarely asked questions of any order given, but Adrian was all he had left in this world. He may not have known her before everything had gone down the toilet, but she had saved him when she could have left him to die on his own. She saved his life, taught him how to survive, and gave him a new direction in this new world. He had vowed to himself that after everything that she had done for him, when she didn''t even know him, that he would do any and everything she ever asked of him.

"You're a grown man now, going by new standards. And I can't tell you what to do forever. I know I make you feel useful but I won't always be around, whether it be my choice or not. I've been all you've had since this whole thing started. It's time to let other people in, grow, become your own man. Not the man I tell you to be. There will still be times when I tell you to do things, small things, like watch Carl, watch my six when I need it, skin game, things like that. But from now on, the big decisions are your's to make." she told him.

"But why? I don't want to make a wrong decision and disappoint you." he said in a somewhat small voice.

"I know but I'm sure that at some point in the future that one decision or another will disappoint me to some degree. But you have people here, people closer to your own age like Jimmy, Glenn, Maggie, and Beth, that you should get to know. If after the group finds out about the walkers and they decide that severe actions needs to be taken, then it's up to you to make your choice. If you think that killing those walkers is in the best interest for everyone, then that is your decision. If you want to stay out of it, stay out of it for your own reasons, not because I'm not going to." she told him.

He didn't look at her but she could still see his face and knew that he was having a bit of a hard time wrapping his head around it. It had been a while since she had shown him any kind of affection and decided that now was as good a time as any.

Reaching out she gently pulled him towards her and placed his head on her shoulder and propped her chin on top of his head.

"It's time I took off the kid gloves, so to speak. I want you to still be a kid in whatever ways you still can and not feel like you need to be chained to me because of some sense of duty because I saved your life. You've been there for me when most people would have either stabbed me in the back, literally, or ran as fast as their legs could carry them. You've been there for me when I needed somebody the most, especially after Seth, so in my mind that makes us even. A life for companionship. I haven't had much of it in my life. So thank you." she said softly before she kissed the top of his head, stood up, and climbed down the ladder towards the ground.

Later that night everyone was sitting around the fire after dinner just enjoying the peace. "Hey Adrian?" Carl asked a little hesitantly. "Yes, Carl?" she asked the boy. "Will you sing for me again?" he asked. _'Well that came out of nowhere...'_ she thought.

"Yeah, Adrian. You haven't sang in a while and it's one of the few things that make you happy." Kale said happy at the thought of her singing again.

"I don't have my guitar anymore." she said knowing that not having her instrument would get her out of singing in front of everyone. "I found a guitar when we were looking for supplies out on the highway." Dale threw in getting up to go get it out of the RV._ 'You cheatin' bastard!'_ Adrian thought cutting a death glare in Dale's retreating direction.

Dale came back a minute later handing her the guitar. Looking back at Kale and Carl then back at the guitar, she gave a deep sigh and took it from Dale. "You two will most likely be the death of me one day." she muttered situating the guitar making everyone chuckle.

"Alright Carl, what do you wanna hear?" she asked looking up at him from across the fire. "Umm...how about Radioactive?" he says. Adrian and Kale laughed at the irony of him remembering that song. "Radioactive it is." she said getting her fingers in place and started to hum softly and then started to pick at the appropriate cords for a slower version of the original song.

It wasn't long after she started singing the song before the other adults caught on to why she and Kale had laughed at the song choice. "Fitting song in our current situation." she heard Andrea say from a few chairs to her left.

"Adrian?" she heard Kale ask not liking the tone in which he had asked her the question but she looked at him anyway. After seeing his expression she wished she hadn't looked. She knew that look. He had given it to her alot at their old camp in the woods outside of Atlanta.

"Will you please sing it? For me?" he asked her. To the others she was sure it looked like some kind of intimate exchange, but in reality it was the song that Kale thought fit her after everything that had happened in her life, from her childhood right up until the night Seth had been killed.

"Alright." she sighed giving in to the second pair of puppy eyes that had ever worked on her.

Readjusting her fingers, Adrian took a deep breath and started picking at the cords again.

_"You shout out loud, but I can't hear a word you say._  
_ I'm talking loud, not saying much._  
_ I'm criticized but all your bullets ricochet._  
_ You shoot me down, but I get up. _

_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose_  
_ Fire away, fire away_  
_ Ricochet, you take your aim_  
_ Fire away, fire away_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_

_Cut me down_  
_But it's you who'll have further to fall_  
_Ghost town, haunted love_  
_Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones_  
_I'm talking loud not saying much_  
_I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose_  
_Fire away, fire away_  
_Ricochet, you take your aim_  
_Fire away, fire away_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_I am titanium_  
_I am titanium_

_Stone-hard, machine gun_  
_Fired at the ones who run_  
_Stone-hard as bulletproof glass_

_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_You shoot me down but I won't fall_  
_I am titanium_  
_I am titanium"_

No one said anything after she stopped playing and put the guitar aside. "Alright. That's enough for tonight. I'm gonna hit the sack." she said in a somewhat reserved tone of voice.


	18. Finding Sophia

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So here is chapter 18. Please let me know what you guys think of the story so far. I am always up for suggestions and any suggestions I like can be incorporated into the story. So please let know what you guys think so far. And don't worry, there is some real Daryl/Adrian action coming soon. Enjoy.**_

Chapter 18

The next morning everyone was sitting around the fire eating breakfast when a very uncomfortable Glenn got up. "So, ummm, the barn's full of walkers." he said rather quickly. Everyone became very quiet and tense.

Everyone then got up and made their way towards the barn. Shane, hostile as ever, was made sure that his opinion on the matter was heard. "We can't let this stand. We either gotta go in there and deal with this or we go." Shane said pacing.

"We're not gonna do anything until I talk to Hershal. This is his land and if we go in there to clear out the barn, I gotta talk him into it." Rick said trying to get through to Shane. "Hershal sees those things as people. Sick people. His wife and step-son are in there." Dale said to Rick. "You knew about this?" Rick demanded. "Yesterday." Dale said.

"You can talk to Hershal if you want, but he's already made it clear that he wants the barn, and it's contents, left alone. He thinks that they are just sick and that when a cure is made that they will all be back to normal." Adrian said from between Daryl and Kale.

"You knew too?!" Shane yelled at her. "The day Daryl got hurt. I went out hunting early that morning and noticed how secure the barn doors were. Awfully strange to have such tight security on a pair of barn doors when there are more zombies than human thieves walkin' around." she said not the least bit intimidated.

"Besides we can't leave. My daughter's still missing. We can't leave without her." Carol said. Adrian didn't know the woman but she did feel bad for her. And even though she hated Shane with every fiber of her being, she had to agree with his assessment that she might not be alive. There was a chance that she could still be out there, fighting to survive and just waiting to be found. But Adrian's hopes weren't very high of the little girl actually being found alive and well. But she would be damned if she would admit such a thing.

"Man even if Sophia is alive and she seen you the other day, she woulda ran in the other direction as fast as she could!" Shane yelled at Daryl. Daryl and Shane went to go for each other but Rick got in between them just in time. Adrian ran to help Rick out by wrapping her arms around Daryl's shoulders and pull him backwards.

For all of Adrian's fitness, upper body strength was not one of them. So even though she was somewhat holding Daryl back, it was really Rick who stopped the fight.

Daryl threw her arms off and took off back towards the camp. When Adrian made it back to camp she seen Daryl walking out of the tack room in the stables with a saddle._ 'He's trying to get himself killed.'_ Adrian thought. She then seen Carol walk into the barn and figured that Daryl would be okay and went out in search of Dale.

Adrian walked up to the RV to see Andrea walking out of it. Not saying anything to each other, Adrian walked inside to find Dale deep in thought while looking at the bag of guns.

"I know where we can put them." she said quietly to the older man. Dale looked up, seeming shocked to see her. "What?" he asked a little confused.

"You want to hide them. I can read it in your face. I know where we can put them that they might be safe." she said. "What do you mean?" Dale asked as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

"The guns need to disappear to keep anything dangerous or stupid from happening. I knew that the moment I found out that Glenn told you about the walkers in the barn. Shane wants to keep us safe, fine, but he's not rational about it. All he sees is math. There are walkers in the barn and we have alot of fire power so therefore, in his mind, the problem is solved as long as the barn is cleared out. But it's not his call and if he keeps up his impulsiveness then he's going to get someone killed." she said still keeping her voice low.

"You want to hide the guns and I know where we can go." she said looking him in the eyes.

"Hey Glenn. Can you go get me some water?" Dale suddenly asked. Glenn left the top of the RV to go get Dale some water while Dale and Adrian grabbed the guns and took off to go and hide them.

They had been walking for about ten minutes in silence when Dale broke it.

"So why are you doing this? I mean you told Rick back in Atlanta that you wanted to become part of the group. But really, other than Carl, Kale, and occasionally Daryl, you never go out of your way to try to become part of the group. So why show me a place to hide the guns?" he asked.

"I don't like guns in general, thanks to my life before all of this. My childhood mostly. My father, who was not only a drunken bastard who liked to beat his only daughter, he was a murder. He killed my mother and then my grandfather after my grandfather took me away from him. I ran away from home when I was fifteen and never seen him again. I often hope that dozens of walkers attacked him and that he was took drunk to defend himself. I hope they ate everything, down to the bones of that evil bastard." she said getting quiet for a moment.

"There are alot of things I remember about my so called father but one of the things that I remember most about him is the cold look that always seemed to be in his eyes. He killed not only his wife and his own father, but he tried to kill me on a few occasions as well. And I'm starting to see that same look in Shane's eyes more and more every day. He thinks that he's hiding it but none of you have ever really looked into the eyes of a killer. It lessens when he looks at Lori or Carl but it's always there no matter what. I'm a part of the group but I like to stay on the outside, keep my eye on everybody. I notice things that I have no business knowing really. I spied on y'all for weeks when you were camped outside of Atlanta." she said looking back at Dale to see his expression.

"Weeks? Why would you possibly want to spy on us? We wouldn't even have known anything about you or Kale if it hadn't been for Daryl." Dale asked wanting to know more now that she seemed willing to talk.

"I knew you were no threat to me or Kale because you didn't know where we were at and as long as we were left alone, I didn't see any reason to make contact with you. But I didn't want to meet up with a member of your group without knowing who I was dealing with. I would mostly find a nice place high up in a tree and just watch you. I knew about how Carol's husband beat her and was a poor excuse of a man. Glenn was always the one sent to Atlanta for any supplies needed. I knew that Merle was a racist junkie redneck that expected everyone to jump on his command and that Daryl enjoyed getting out of that camp as much as possible. I knew about Lori and Shane, that is something I wish I could burn out of my memory. And I also know that Amy and Andrea were very close and that it was devastating for Andrea to have to shoot her sister." she told him.

Dale was amazed at how much the girl had learned about them when they hadn't even known that she was there. But he supposed that you learned alot about people in their natural habitat.

"I remember, back in Atlanta, that Kale said that you had shot a little boy that you were trying to save from the city because he had been bitten. Is that true?" he asked. She was quiet so long that Dale thought that she had just decided to ignore his question.

"Yes." she answered quietly.

Stopping in from of a large cyprus stump Adrian turned to look at Dale with an emotionless face.

"I've killed people Dale. Almost all of them after all this started. There was only one from before. But it was always for the safety of myself and those I was responsible for. They seen a lone woman and a small boy or a woman and a teenage boy and that they we were easy targets. Kill the boys, use me for their pleasure then kill me and take our stuff. But they underestimated me because I'm a small woman but as the saying goes "dynamite comes in small packages". Well they lit my fuse when they attacked me and mine and died for it. I'm not afraid to kill when I deem it necessary and only as a last resort. To protect everyone on that farm, the group and Hershal and his family, I will do what I have too. Hiding those guns will hopefully protect us for a short while longer." she said looking around.

"I'm going to keep a look out in case someone thought to have followed us or something." she said walking past Dale. She was a few dozen steps away when Dale called out to her. She turned to look at him.

"The one from before. The one you killed before all of this, who was it?" Dale asked. Adrian looked at the ground for a moment before she looked back up at him.

"The boy's father." she said turning without looking back at him.

Adrian had been looking around for the last five minutes for any signs of them being followed. She noticed a pair of boot prints overlapping her and Dale's track and swore as she headed back towards Dale. She seen Shane standing in front of Dale from her hidden position just behind the tree stump. "Don't make me shoot you Shane." Dale said. "That what you're gonna do if I don't leave Dale? Shoot me?" Shane asked moving to place his chest against the barrel of Dale's rifle.

"If I have to." Dale said, his voice a little shaky. Adrian gently pulled her gun out from the small of her back, held her gun up, and took a deep breath. "No you won't, Dale. Because you don't have the spine for it." Shane whispered. Adrian opened her eyes and loudly cocked her gun. Knowing that she had their attention she stepped out from behind the stump, barrel pointed at Shane's face.

"You may not think Dale has the stomach for it...but what about me Shane?  
We've been havin' this little dance of ours for a little too long I think." she said slowly stalking towards Shane as Dale moved back.

"You may have been a cop, and probably a good one, before the world went to shit and everyone we know was eaten by dead people, but now..." she said giving him a slow once over.

"Now you're nothing but a cold, calculating, envious, and impulsive bully who wants to be in charge. And a murderer on top of it all." she said as she finally reached Shane. She knew that he could take the gun from her if he wanted. But she was also armed with more than just a gun and quick on her feet. And she knew that he seen the cold, calculating look in her eyes as she locked eyes with him.

"I know that look in your eyes. And I know you see it in mine as well because I've seen it in the mirror a time or two myself. So tell me Shane...will I pull this trigger on you if I think it will keep the others safe?" she whispered up at the ex-cop.

It was in that moment that Shane realized just how dangerous she could be. And she seen much more than she should. She tended to know things that she didn't have a right to know.

He had always underestimated her skills and now he seen the same look in her eyes that he had seen in his the night he had left Otis for dead. Shane knew that he would kill anyone and anything that stood in his way to keep him from protecting Lori and Carl. What he hadn't realized was just how far Adrian would go to protect whomever she seen as hers to protect as well. He would have to keep a closer eye out on her.

"Give me those damn guns." Shane whispered down at her, not loosing eye contact.

"Give him the guns Dale. He wants to play the hero, let him. But he has to live with the consequences of his actions. Which no doubt will turn out badly." Adrian said uncocking her gun and replacing it back in the waist of her pants.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Adrian was hot on Shane's heels when they made it back to the house but she never said a word to him. She seen Daryl walking towards them. "What's this?" Daryl asked pointing towards the guns.

"You with me?" Shane asked holdng out a shotgun to Daryl, who took it. Adrian stopped when Shane started handing out the guns. She seen Daryl pump his shotgun and kept herself from groaning out loud.

Not only at the situation now getting out of hand but also because seeing Daryl with that shotgun was one of the sexist things she had seen since she had been practically eye raping him in the woods the day he cut open that walker to make sure it hadn't gotten Sophia.

She knew what Shane was going to stir up, so instead of paying attention to his stupid ass, she decided that now was as good a time as any to check him out while everyone's attention was on Shane and his ranting. He was wearing a grey sleeveless shirt, a pair of dark baggy jeans with that silly red rag hanging out of his back pocket, and his normal faded shoes. He was sweaty and dirty but he couldn't have looked better to not only her, but to her libido as well.

_'Dammit, I need to get laid.'_ she thought practically stripping his clothes off and raping him with her eyes. She was damn lucky no one was looking at her at the moment.

"Oh shit." she heard T-Dog say in the middle of her Getting-Daryl-Alone-So-I-Can-Please-My-Vagina daydream. She seen everyone look out past the barn to see Jimmy. With Hershal and Rick behind him with walkers attached to poles. "Dammit. There's no stopping this now." she muttered as everyone took off running towards the barn to meet up with Rick, Hershal, and Jimmy.

She seen Kale among the crowd carrying his gun as well and ran after them. Too many people were talking to keep track of the conversation so Adrian just walked up to Kale who was standing beside Daryl, pointing their guns at the walkers.

When Shane pulled out his gun and fired three rounds into the walker that Hershal was holding Adrian looked over towards Carl who was in the arms of his mother.

"Shane! That's enough!" she heard Rick yell. "Damn right it's enough." Shane said walking up to the walker and putting a round in it's head. Hershal seemed to be in shock while everyone else was either scared to geared up for a fight. Then Shane ran towards the barn to rip the doors open to finish what was started.

Adrian shot another look towards Lori and Carl to see Lori pushing Carl behind her. After drawing their attention to the doors of the barn, Shane backed up and readied his weapon just as the walkers started pouring out. Shane started firing and then Andrea and T-Dog joined in. And then Daryl joined in, as did a torn Glenn after getting permission from Maggie to do so. And then Kale looked at her and then back to the walkers and stepped up beside Daryl and started firing as well.

Adrian then walked up to Rick who seemed a little in shock, who's walker had been shot by Shane in the middle of all the gunfire, but she kept her gaze upon the graveyard that was now the front of Hershal's barn.

"We knew it was going to happen eventually Rick. I just wished it hadn't been like this." she said still not looking at the former sheriff.

And then everyone heard another moan come from inside the barn. Everyone who had been involved in the shooting readied their guns while everyone else waited for the walker to come out. But none of them were prepared for the small body of the walker to come out.

"Sophia." Adrian whispered feeling all of the blood drain from her face.

The walker that used to be Sophia stumbled out of the barn growling and snapping and slowly making her way towards them. "Sophia." she heard Carol chant as she ran forwards. She was going to reach out and stop the woman but Daryl did by the time Adrian thought to move.

Everyone seemed horrified to see Sophia walking around as a walker. They had been so hopeful and been searching so hard, Daryl more than anybody. Carol was crying, crumbled into the dirt still calling Sophia's name with Daryl still holding her.

What Adrian didn't realize was that she was silently crying as well.

"Rick. You have to do it. She doesn't deserve this. Please." she whispered still looking at Sophia.

Rick then walked towards Sophia with his gun drawn but not raised. Stopping just a few yards in front of Sophia, Rick raised his gun, and then fired.

Sophia's now fully dead body crumbled to the ground.


	19. The story of the boy

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So because I am a few chapter ahead, and going strong I might add, I have decided to grace you all, my lovely reader, with an extra chapter. And let me tell you, that when the author is tearing up while writing a part in a chapter, that it is truly sad. So please read and tell me what you think. **_

Chapter 19

An hour after Sophia had been shot Adrian walked through the door of the RV to see Carol sitting at the small table and Daryl sitting on the counter across from her. Adrian had wiped her face down as best she could before she had left her tent but she knew that her face was a mess. Adrian walked over to the empty seat across from Carol and looked up at her. She then looked over at Daryl to see him looking at her.

She was a hot mess. Her clothes, which consisted of a thin black cotton long sleeve shirt, the black and red wristband she always seemed to be wearing, dark boot cut blue jeans that seemed to have a fair many rips in it, and her tan Ranger Joe boots. Her hair was in it's usual braid but a few thick strands had fallen out at some point during the day and now framed her face which was paler than normal.

And her eyes were bloodshot.

All in all she was a hot mess._ 'A hot mess with a nice ass.'_ Daryl thought looking back at Adrian.

Adrian then looked back over to Carol and lightly cleared her throat. "I'm sorry." she whispered. Carol looked at her. "Why? You didn't know her." she asked. "I may not have known her like the rest of you did but I know her." she said looking Carol in the eyes as she spoke her next words.

"Sophia was a beautiful girl. She was as happy as she could be even though she lived in this raging hell hole that we were forced to live in. She and Carl were great friends and she was a smart. Most of all I know that she loved you." Adrian said still whispering.

"I know how you feel about Sophia's loss. And I would never wish that on anyone. Especially you." she said. "How could you possibly know how I feel? You've never lost a child before." Carol said in a mocking tone of voice. Adrian then broke eye contact, shifted and pulled something out of her back pocket.

It was the picture that Daryl had seen her holding on two different occasions since he had met her. And she had been crying both times. She looked at the picture with a sad smile, turned it upside down, and the placed it on the table in front of Carol. Daryl could see the picture from where he was sitting.

It was a picture of Adrian and a little blonde headed boy in front of a beach with the ocean in full view behind them. They were both smiling towards the camera. Adrian had both arms around the boy's shoulders while both of the boy's arms were wrapped around her waist. Adrian's hair was in a high ponytail, her bright green eyes sparkling, and she had on a white tank top. What drew Daryl's attention the most was the bright ass, happy smile she had pasted on her face. She had a beautiful smile and was even prettier in the photo but Daryl preferred the sexy ass female Rambo ninja he seen skulking around camp all the time. The boy was young, probably around ten or so, with a thick head of shaggy blonde hair, hazel eyes, tan skin, and also had a big happy smile on his face.

"This is Seth. I've known him since the day he was born. He was a good kid but had quite the attitude." she whispered with a sad, humorless laugh.

"He was staying with me for a while when this thing broke out and started getting bad. After people started raiding houses for supplies, whether someone was there or not, I knew we couldn't stay there anymore. So we packed what he could carry and got the hell outta dodge. We were almost out of the city when a walker jumped out of nowhere behind us." Adrian said never taking her eyes off the picture of her and the boy.

"I was holding his hand when it happened. But I wasn't fast enough to stop him from getting bitten. If was on the shoulder and it was just a bite, no real damage. Kinda like how Jim's bite was actually. I stabbed it in the head knowing by that time that noise attracted the things. But we also knew that once you were bitten, that it was only a matter of time before you became of them." she was still whispering but it was coming out harsher than before. As if she was forcing herself not to cry.

"We made it a few miles into the woods before we were forced to make camp, not only because it was getting so dark but also because Seth was getting sicker the farther out we went. It was after the fever kicked in that he asked me the first time. He wanted me to shoot him before he died and turned into one of them. Said he didn't want to die and then come back and hurt me." Adrian was silently crying again at this point.

"The longer the fever went on, the more he asked, begged me, to do it. But i just couldn't. How could I shoot this boy that I had known since the day he took his first breath? How could I do that and live with myself afterwards? So I kept telling him no. It had been hours since the fever had hit and at that point he was starting to see things. It was at that point that I decided that I would grant him his request, no matter how much it pained me to do it.

He liked when I would sing to him. So I sang to him, which seemed to bring him back to reality for a short while. Right as I was finishing the song, I pointed my gun at his head, kept my eyes on his, and shot him." she said crying in earnest at this point.  
Adrian somehow managed to pull her red, bright, watery green eyes to Carol's and held them there.

"So I know exactly how you Carol. So I just wanted to say I sorry because I know your pain." she said putting the picture back into her back pocket. "No you don't." Carol said to her. Adrian looked up at her. "But thank you all the same." Carol said giving a weak smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Adrian nodded and got up from the table and started for the door.

"What was the song?" Daryl asked looking at her when she reached his side before exiting the RV.

Adrian didn't look at him and she reached the bottom step, holding onto the doorframe.

"Titanium." she whispered, leaving the RV, seeking the solace of her tent.

Adrian didn't stay in her tent long. She gathered her knife, bow, and arrows and headed for her bike. She needed to get away to think little bit and since she hadn't ran into town since they had gotten to the farm , she decided that now was as good a time as any.

Nobody paid her much attention until she had cranked her bike and took off down the long, dusty, driveway. She knew that she probably should have told somebody where she was going, but she wasn't in the mood to talk to anybody.

It only took her about fifteen or twenty minutes to make it to town. Even though she was extremely depressed at this point she made sure to think of the possible danger. Instead of driving straight into town on the bike Adrian parked behind one of the outer buildings and traveled on foot from there.

Her first stop was by the hardware store. The place was pretty bare but she searched anyway. She grabbed a blood splattered duffle bag she had found just outside the store and began to look around to see what was left. She was getting ready to leave by taking a quick inventory of what she had in the bag.

_ 'Gloves, rope, duct tape...'_ she thought while digging through the mostly empty bag, until something shiny caught the corner of her eye. Looking to her left Adrian seen a nice, shiny machete hanging on a bar. Adrian walked over to the machete to pick it up when she seen a few nice sized hatchets, and even an axe not far away.

Chewing on her lip for a minute Adrian thought _'Fuck it.'_ and grabbed the single machete, two hatchets, and single axe and placed them all in her duffle before leaving the store.

Adrian's second stop was the sporting goods store. She didn't have much hope of actually finding anything useful but she decided to check anyway. The store was empty, save for two walkers that she had quickly disposed of. The store was fuller than she would have expected it to be but maybe with the dead eating each other, the living had been afraid to leave their homes.

She ventured over into the fishing section and grabbed some string, hooks, and even some weights and fake bait and threw it in her new scavenge duffle. She then walked over to the hunting section and grabbed any and all boxes of bullets that she had seen. Making her way over to the display case where the knives and guns were normally kept, she seen that it was pretty empty as far as guns went but the knife selection was almost endless.

There were only a few big gaming knives, but that was okay. Adrian walked behind the counter and grabbed all of the knives that she seen.

"Can never have too many weapons these days." she muttered to herself, periodically checking around her to make sure that no one tried to sneak up on her, walkers nor humans.

Her next stop in the hunting section was arrows. She had a decent amount of arrows already but she liked the more durable arrows better than the ones that she had to make. She grabbed every arrow that she seen, which was quite a few handfuls. She was on her was out when something dark but shiny caught her eye again. She walked over to it to see a dusty black helmet on a shelf. And on the rack beside the shelf was a thick, brown leather jacket, which seemed to be made for a woman and just about her size.

"What the hell." she said grabbing them and then leaving the store not only quickly but as quietly as possible.

Her last stop was the bar, which to her surprise was occupied by half drunk Hershal.

"Well howdy there, Hershal." she said as she dropped her now very heavy duffle onto the bar. Adrian walked to the back of the bar and walked behind the counter and began to inspect the selection of mostly full bottles of alcohol.

"Did they send you to come and bring m back?" he asked as he poured another drink.

"No. As far as anyone knows, I went batshit crazy and just took off without a word to anyone. Kinda like you I'm betting." Adrian said without looking back at the older man. It was silent for a few minutes while Adrian picked out quite a few bottles of nice alcohol.

_ 'Let's see now. Jim, Jack, and the Captain are always good bets.'_ she thought as she grabbed the whiskey and rum off of the drink shelf and placed them on the counter out of Hershal's reach.

And then she seen two bottle of a perfectly good whiskey and grabbed both bottles with a smile. Her mood was somewhat lightened but she knew that as soon as she stopped being in survival mode that that would all change. She grabbed the bottles an placed them carefully into her duffle but wrapped them up in her newly acquired jacket to keep them from hitting anything and breaking.

She hefted up her heavy bag and turned to Hershal.

"Do you want me to send anybody after you Hershal? It's going to be dark soon and I'm sure you're out here without protection." she asked before she walked out of the bar.

"Just leave me alone." he muttered as he took another shot. Adrian heaved a deep sigh and then walked up to Hershal at the bar and gently placed a spare .45 that she had taken out of her duffel onto the counter next to the old man and walked out of the bar the same way she had come in.

An hour later Adrian was back at the farm and was parked close to her tent. She hauled the large, heavy duffel bag to her tent and deposited it on the floor with a loud thud. Still not in the mood to be in one place for long, Adrian decided to do a little hunting and then do whatever tickled her fancy at the time.

Grabbing an empty backpack Adrian opened it and began to fill it with a few bottles of water, a package of turkey sausage, an extra large handful of arrows, a few knives, and a bottle of liquor she had grabbed from the bar earlier, zipped it up, and took off towards the woods with her bow, gun, and hunting knife.

It was past dark and she was sure that if Kale had noticed her absence, which she was fairly sure he had since she had been gone most of the day, that he was worried about her being on her own again. She adored the kid, she really did, but he was such a mother hen when it came to her. She didn't think it ever occurred to him that she had been on her own before he had showed up. She liked his company when she was in the mood for it, but most of the time she just wanted to be left alone.

Especially today.

Adrian was nearing the tree line when she heard voices. Knowing that there shouldn't be people out this far put Adrian of the defensive as she stalked closer towards the voices.

"Sophia wasn't mine! Just get the hell outta here! I don't want you here, so just piss off!" Adrian heard in a voice that could only belong to Daryl Dixon. Staying in the shadows, Adrian slowly crept into what she assumed was Daryl's new accomidations since his tent was set up and he had a fire going.

There was a large stone chimney standing in the middle of Daryl's camp so she assumed that there used to be a house there that had probably burnt down some time ago. Carol walked off back towards the farm house and left Daryl standing alone in the dim light of the fire. Adrian planned on making herself known but she wanted to admire the view for a minute before she did that.

Daryl was standing with his right side to the fire looking back towards the farm house so the light of the fire only really touched his right side while shadows played across his face and the other side of him. All the hunting, whether it be from hunting game or killing walkers, had kept him fit through the whole ordeal so far.

She had only seen him without his shirt a few times and she hadn't been disappointed at the sight no matter how much he had been embarrassed about his scars. When she had first seen him without his shirt back close towards Atlanta he had had a healthy figure and a hard body from what she could tell but as with them all, he had since lost weight but he hadn't lost much muscle.

As a matter of fact, whatever muscle the rest of him may have lost seemed to have taken up resident in his arms because they were some of the best damn arms she had ever seen.

It was at times like these that Adrian had to admit to herself that it wasn't just the fact that she hadn't had sex in a long while that drew her to Daryl so much. She had been attracted to him long before she had started only thinking with her vagina when around Daryl. She had thought him attractive, scars and all, almost from the first time she had laid eyes on him.

"You know it's not nice to yell at a lay who just lost her daughter." she said stepping out from her hiding place.

"Oh great. Another one. What the hell do you want?" Daryl said. "Nothing much. Was just passing through." Adrian said shrugging her shoulders. Then a thought occurred to her and she swung her backpack around so she could dig through it.

"Went into town today. Raided a few stores. Thought you might like some of these. My quiver is full." she said placing a handful of arrows next to his cross bow by the fire.

Daryl said nothing, just looked at the arrows she had just added to his pile of mixed arrows. Then she started to walk off in the direction that Carol had gone. She had taken a total of maybe ten steps when she stopped and turned back towards him.

She then reached into her bag again.

"So." she said looking back up at him with a small smile. "I don't suppose that if I shared this with you-" she said holding up a full bottle of Southern Comfort for him to see "that you would let me stay up here for the night huh?" she asked slightly swinging the bottle back and forth with a somewhat wicked grin on her face.

"You're willin' to share a whole damn bottle of whiskey to be around somebody that don't anybody around? Why?" Daryl asked. "Well you wanna be alone and away from everybody. I wanna be alone and away from everybody but I have alcohol, which I know after the day the both of us have had, we could both seriously use." she said tossing him the bottle.

"So do we have a deal?" she asked as he started to turn away and walk towards the fire. He sat down and cracked open the bottle. Adrian walked over to the fire taking his silence as confirmation that she could stay. She sat down far enough away to where they couldn't accidently touch but close enough to where they could pass the bottle back and forth.

"So what the hell were you doin' out in town today? It's dangerous to go out, especially alone." Daryl asked sipping from the bottle.

"That's kinda like the pot callin' the kettle black, don't ya think?" Adrian said reaching for the bottle and taking a sip. Normally she didn't like to drink alcohol but she occasionally had the urge for it and today was one of those days.

"I'm better on my own. I don't need nobody." Daryl said taking a long pull from the bottle. "I like my alone time but I don't like being alone. And if you're so much better on your own, why haven't you left the group already? Merle is gone, alive or dead, you don't know. Sophia is dead, so you can no longer use the excuse that you're looking for her. So what's really keeping you here?" Adrian said with a bit of bite in her tone figuring that if she annoyed him that it might get him to spill some truth for once.

She could feel the heat of Daryl's anger coming off of him in waves but he said nothing, just kept drinking.

"It's not your fault you know." she whispered after a few minutes. Daryl looked away from the fire to look at her but she was looking into the fire as well. "I don't know what the hell you're talkin' about." he said.

She must have gotten the good stuff when she grabbed the bottle because he was already starting to feel a little buzzed. After a minute she looked up at him and he couldn't take his eyes off of hers. Her bright green eyes were naturally beautiful but with the orange and yellow of the fire reflected in her eyes made them enchanting and impossible to look away from.

She had regained some of her color back during the day and he had noticed that she was slowly going from snow white to tan.

"You're not a failure because you did't get to them in time. Merle thought he had been left for dead on a roof in the middle of Atlanta. In a desperate attempt to get away he cut his hand off. If he had been thinking clearly I'm sure he would have realized that you would have went back for him and just waited. Same thing with Sophia. If anything, it's more my fault than anyone's that Sophia got lost and bitten." she whispered still looking at him.

"Whatchu mean 'your fault'?" Daryl asked

"I didn't have to go with Rick to kill those two walkers. He would have been just fine on his own. I could have let Rick take care of the walkers and I could have stayed wit Sophia. We wouldn't have had to leave Sophia alone in the first place if I hadn't forgotten my damn bow under the truck with Carl when I took off after them." she said turning to look back at the fire.

"If I hadn't forgotten my bow Sophia wouldn't have gotten lost, Carl would't have been shot, you wouldn't have been hurt, Carol would still have her little girl, Otis would still be alive, and Hershal and his family would still be in their little bubble of happiness. All because I forgot my stupid bow." Adrian huffed and she flopped onto her back and looked up at the night sky through the tree tops.


	20. A shock filled day

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So I'm sorry if Daryl seems kinda outta character but I figured that he can be a bit of a different person when by himself or with Adrian. Please let me know what you think about this chapter and as I've said before, any suggestions or critics you have about the story so far, please feel free to let me know.**_

Chapter 20

Daryl had drank a pint of the whiskey before Adrian decided to cut him off and get him to his bed. He would already have a nice sized headache in the morning so Adrian decided to make him call it quits.

Adrian picked up her bag and put on the left side of the tent along with her weapons when she went inside to straighten up his blankets. He had a cot set up but Adrian didn't know how Daryl normally slept so she fixed him a thick pallet on the tent floor before she went back to the fire to help him inside. She knew she wouldn't be able to carry both Daryl and his heavy ass crossbow so she went outside and helped Daryl stand on his somewhat unsteady feet and helped him the short distance to his tent.

They walked into the tent and she tried to gently help him onto the pallet but Daryl's balance left something to be desired as he threw not only himself onto the pallet, but Adrian as well. Adrian landed on top of Daryl, who had landed on his back, and they had become a tangled mess of arms and legs.

Adrian landed fully on top of Daryl, touching from chest to knees. Adrian's right arm was against Daryl's injured side while her left arm was trapped between hers' and Daryl's chest. Daryl's left arm was wrapped around Adrian's waist while his right hand seemed to holding the back of her head tightly, which would explain why her face was pressed against his neck.

Daryl's right leg was trapped between Adrian's thighs, which she seemed to have been holding onto with a firm grip. Dirt, sweat, smoke, and the outdoors. That's what Daryl smelled like to her when she took a chance to breath through her nose. But boy did Daryl enjoy when she would breath through her mouth because then he could feel the soft, warm puffs of air skim across his skin.

It had been a while since Daryl had been with a girl and Adrian was there on top of him and he was just drunk enough to try and take a shot at getting into her pants for the night. He seen the hot and heavy looks she would throw his way sometimes when she didn't think anybody was looking. They were both adults and so long as she agreed to sleep with him, why should he stop it?

Daryl was opening his mouth to ask her if she would be up for a night in the sack with him when he felt the warm, wet heat of her tongue make a small trail up his neck. It had been a bold move on her part to lick his neck, but he seemed like the type to be sensitive in that area so she had tried it to see what kind of reaction she got.

She felt his hands tighten on her waist and in her hair and his body go tense as she dragged her tongue up as far as she could with him still holding her head against his neck.

Daryl woke up shortly after dawn and started to mentally take stock of himself. He had a raging headache. The kind that throbbed at your temples and behind your eyeballs so badly that you would swear tiny people were in your head and trying to bang their way out.

Then he noticed that he felt really good about something, which was enough to worry him if he was feeling good about something. His body was sore in a few places, other than his head, and it was a different kind of sore. And he was really warm. And heavy in a few places.

Daryl looked down at himself to see a small pale arm stretched across his chest. The hand attached to that arm was laying over his heart. Looking down farther he noticed that his legs didn't look right either. Then he realized that he felt a smooth leg in between his.

Looking back at the arm on his chest he followed it until his eyes reached a pale, and lightly scarred torso. Looking towards whatever it was that was resting on his arm, Daryl was supremely shock to see the peaceful, sleeping face of Adrian on his right arm. Her long hair was down, which he didn't think he had ever seen her hair like that, and fanned out across her back, her left arm which seemed to be tucked underneath a pillow.

Daryl looked away from her face and started looking at the rest of her. Her back was as pale as the rest of her and smooth from what he could tell. Except for the few thin scars on her back. There were only about third that he could count. And not all of them looked as old as some others.

She had one scar of her left shoulderblade that ran diagonally, was about two or three inches long, and flat but pink. The second scar was an inch or so below the first and looked like she had been shot and the bullet had just torn straight through. And the last one was on her lower back and was something he recognized very well since he had a few of them as well. _'Seems like her daddy liked to whip with the belt buckle too.'_ Daryl thought looking at the light circular shaped scar.

It was only when he reached the blanket at her waist that he seen a flash of memory from the night before.

_ Daryl wasn't really sure when they had gotten completely naked, but they were. Daryl was laying on his back looking up at Adrian who was straddling his waist. Both of Daryl's hands were firmly clutching onto her hips while she slowly grinded her hips against his, her eyes closed, lips apart, hair loose and brushing against his thighs. And then she moaned his name._

The flash of memory made Daryl forget that Adrian's head was resting on his arm and he jerked violently into a sitting position. "What the hell?!" Daryl demanded out loud to himself.

The sudden movement woke Adrian who had conditioned herself to be a light sleeper and the sudden movement from under her head didn't help her knee jerk reaction. Adrian pulled her left arm out from under the pillow to show a small spring action knife she had been holding in her sleep.

Hitting the button to release the blade, Adrian quickly pulled herself up onto her right hand and her knees and was going for Daryl's throat out of instinct. Daryl caught her wrist and jerked it out of the way of his throat.

Her right hand reached out to punch him in the face but Daryl caught that wrist too and quickly jerked her over his body. Daryl had her back laying on the floor on his left side, her hands pinned to the floor above her head, her legs were tangled in the blankets, her fiery hair everywhere. And her cute little ass was firmly resting in his lap.

_ 'Damn it.'_ Daryl thought as his dick jumped when he realized where her ass was sitting sideways. With her on her back Daryl was able to get a better look at her torso than when she had surprised him by throwing her shirt off suddenly the other night.

It wasn't as bad as he had originally thought, or at least not as bad as his stomach and chest anyway. He seen the pink puckered scar that was over her liver and the long pink scar that traveled across her right ribcage to and around her waist. There were a handful of white small circular scars dotted randomly on her chest and stomach and what looked like a birthmark roughly in the shape of a star on her left hipbone.

Looking up at Daryl's face Adrian blinked a few times which seemed to clear her dazed and wild gaze but was still panting from being jerked awake so suddenly. "Daryl?" she asked in confusion looking up at him. "Stupid bitch. Tryin' to kill me? Whatchu doin' in here anyways?" Daryl asked. Adrian relaxed and dropped her head onto the floor breathing a sigh of relief.

"Damn it, man, don't do that shit to me. I react badly to unexpected sudden movements." she said with her eyes closed.

"Ya think? What the hell you doin' in here and why the hell are you naked?" he demanded. Adrian opened her eyes and looked up at him. "Seriously?" she asked. Seeing no reaction from him she sighed again, only this time in disappointment.

"Leave it to a man to forget the six hour sex marathon he had the night before. I'm just glad we didn't attract any unwanted attention with as loud as we were being." Adrian said laughing to herself, putting her head back on the floor.

"Excuse me? You wanna run that by me again?" Daryl asked hoping that she was lying. "We had sex Daryl. No I did not rape you, you were just as much all over me as I was you. I don't think I've ever seen clothes fly that fast before. And I intend to take you up on your offer of sex anytime, I don't care if you remember making the offer or not." she said looking up at him.

Daryl was quite for a few minutes going over everything she had said._ 'Six hour sex marathon, huh? Must be why I woke up feeling good and sore in places I forgot I had.'_ Daryl thought to himself looking over Adrian's pale, bare skin.

At some point while Daryl had been zoned out, he had let go of her wrists without knowing it. Which was why he was so surprised to suddenly find her straddling his lap. And the blanket was no longer between them. Her body was firmly pressed against his, her left arm draped over his right shoulder, her right hand gripping a handful of hair at the nape of his neck, and her lips her slightly parted and a mere two inches from his own.

"What the hell do you think you're doin'?" he asked hoping she didn't hear how shaky his voice was. "I told you." she whispered, lightly licking his top lip. "You made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. Sex any time I wanted it. And I think a bout of morning sex is called for this morning, to kick off this new deal of ours. What do ya think?" she whispered, getting closer.

He had to admit her hot little body felt pretty damn good against his at the moment. If he had made her an offer to have sex again, then it must have been good. Right? And the more he checked her out, the more often his jeans fit tighter than they had when he had put them on that morning. She wanted him regardless of his scars or him being from the wrong side of the tracks. She seemed to know better than anybody in the group that he was as far from perfect as a person could get. And yet, as far as he knew, she hadn't judged him or called him on it.

She didn't talk much, like most women who couldn't stand the silence and liked the sound of their own voice. She was strong, in more ways that one. She said what she thought and told people what they needed to hear, whether they wanted to hear it or not. She had scars of her own but they made her no less beautiful no matter what she thought. They helped make her who she was today, and that was someone strong enough to survive this new world.

And if she was offering to have sex with him when they were able, who the hell was he to say no to that? In this new world men would kill, literally, to take what she was offering.

"Fuck it." he said. His left hand went to the center of her back and pressed her even tighter against him while his right grabbed a handful of her silky red hair and crushed her lips against his. Her lips her as soft as they looked some days. To his surprise, she immediently opened her mouth and her warm, wet tongue invaded his mouth. Daryl released her mouth, tightened his fist in her hair and gently pulled her hair, causing her head to fall back and arch her neck. Daryl licked and bit his way around her neck enjoying the small moans that her panting mouth released.

Daryl bit down on a thick cord of muscle in the side of her neck a little harder than he had intended to, knowing that it had to have hurt at least a little. To his surprise, Adrian gasped loudly, her arms and legs tightening around him.

"Oh god, Daryl." she moaned, mouth open, eyes closed. Daryl looked at her as she repeated the reaction whe he did it a second time.

_ 'Fuck that's hot.'_ he thought as he grinned to himself.

An hour later, a sweaty but fully satisfied Adrian was limply draped over a equally sweaty but satisfied Daryl, both panting trying to catch their breath. "Fuck, you are a good lay, Daryl Dixon." Adrian said, her head against his chest listening to his rapid heartbeat. He laughed breathlessly. "You ain't so bad yourself there, Adrian Hunter." Daryl said.

With as much energy as he could muster, Daryl lifted his left hand and gently tapped her hip. "Come on. We need to get up and see what needs to be done up at the house. If Rick and them ain't back yet, they'll probably wanna send a few people to go out lookin' for 'em." he said, his words being the opposite of what his body was feeling.

_ 'Damn if last night was anything close to that, how in the hell could I forget sex that great? Even drunk I should remember sex like that. Well they don't say that drunk sex is great sex for nothing, I guess.'_ Daryl thought to himself.

After a few minutes of laying there, they both finally caught their breath and untangled themselves from each other. Adrian was on her side of the tent getting redressed while Daryl was on his. They would occasionally sneak a peek at one another when the other wasn't looking, or think they weren't looking, like a couple of teenagers.

Once they were both dressed, Daryl caught Adrian looking at him. But it wasn't just any kind of look. She had sex written in her eyes all over again. And damn if he wasn't starting to feel the same.

"Woman, you better quit lookin' at me like that." he mumbled fixing his belt. "Like what?" she asked raking her eyes over him, licking her lips. "Like you wanna strip me naked and have your way with me again." he said looking at her.

"But it's what I wanna do." she said looking up at him, biting her bottom lip. Daryl's eyes latched onto the movement and he was instantly hard. She bit her lip like that while she was coming, he discovered.

"Damn it woman." he growled stalking over to her, twisting her now braided hair around his fist, yanked her head back, and gave her a bruising kiss. He had learned earlier that Adrian like it a little rough and was glad for it because he enjoyed it rough and didn't think he had it in him to be gentle.

Daryl ripped his mouth away from hers, enjoying the sight she made. Her eyes were closed, mouth parted, lips shiny and swollen. She was just hot all fucking over.

"We both just came hard enough to see fucking stars. We got shit to do right now, ain't got time to literally fuck around. You still want it again later after sun down, then come back up here and I'll fuck you hard enough and long enough that you won't be able to walk straight tomorrow. Understood?" he demanded. She had moaned out loud at his words when he talked about what he would do to her if she came back that night.

"Um-hmm." was all she was able to squeeze out of her throat to answer him. "Good." he said letting go of her hair and walked out of the tent.

_ 'Damn that sexy ass man.'_ she thought as she gathered her things and left the tent behind him.

Before they had left Daryl's camp he had grabbed a grey jacket and had thrown his angel cut leather vest over it. She had been starring at his ass the entire way back to the house and she was pretty sure he knew it.

Everyone was out and about when they walked into camp and they even got a few looks seeing as they had walked into camp together. Adrian didn't care much if everyone knew she was getting her some but she knew Daryl did. He was a private person and she accepted that so, for his sake, she decided to keep her burning-Daryl's-clothes-off stare to a minimum.

Daryl had been right about the camp getting people together to go out and look for Rick, Hershal, and Glenn. Shane, T-Dog, Andrea, and Daryl were the selected party to go. Adrian decided to relieve Dale of watch duty, since it seemed the poor man hardly ever left the top of his RV. Kale had caught up with her at her tent and demanded to know where she had been since she had apparently almost given him heart attack when she didn't show up back at camp last night.

Needless to say he didn't take the news of her staying at Daryl's camp too well. He had been in a pissy mood with her since. But she was okay with that. She had kept the poor boy chained to her much too long and he needed to learn to grow into his own man. Learn about the others in camp, trust them, and enjoy a little time with kids his own age. She had seen him around Jimmy here and there. Apparently Beth was doing poorly since the day before having went into some sort of shock from the barn incident.

Shane, T-Dog, Andrea, and Daryl were all gathered around the back of Shane's car, the back hatch open and being loaded with everything that they might need. Adrian looked over towards the long driveway since it seemed to have caught everyone else's attention and seen a red and white SUV flying up the drive, leaving a trail of dust in their wake.

The SUV pulled up to the farm house and Rick and Hershal came out of the front and Glenn from the back. Lori and Carl ran to greet Rick. Maggie ran in Hershal's direction and assumed that she was going to greet her father.

_'Well that was the wrong assumption.'_ Adrian thought a tad surprised when Maggie ran past her father and eagerly embraced Glenn.

What seemed to escape everyone's attention was the person that didn't get out of the vehicle. Adrian got down from the RV and walked up beside Daryl. Not being able to resist herself, Adrian stealthily grabbed his ass while no one was paying attention.

It certainly got Daryl's.

"Damn it woman, don't do that shit out here." he muttered, not having heard her walk up behind him.

"Why not? No one's looking. And besides you have a nice tight ass. I just couldn't help myself." she said smirking. "Yeah, well try." he said looking at her. "So who do you think the kid is?" she said nodding towards the partially slumped over body in the backseat of the SUV. Before Daryl could answer her, T-Dog drew everyone's attention to him. "Who the hell is that?" he asked pointing at the kid. "That's Randall." Glenn answered.

Randall was soon moved to the shed so Hershal could work on his leg, which seemed to have landed on a spiked fence the night before. A few hours later everyone was called to the house for a meeting about Randall. It was only after she had seen who she thought was everyone enter the house that she started heading towards the shed.

It was hot as hell outside so Adrian had left her bow in her tent after she had gotten down from the RV. Since the barn incident everyone had started carrying a gun, which was why she had her's strapped to one thigh and her hunting knife to her other. She walked up to the door of the shed to see that it was locked with a combination lock. Wanting to get a better look at the kid, and keep an eye on him, she walked around the shed to find another way in.

On the back side of the shed there was a good sized window.

_ 'Now to get up there.'_ she thought looking around for a way to get up to the landing below the window. There was a small outhouse looking building next to the shed and wasn't too tall.

"I can manage that." she muttered backing up about fifty yards from the building. She took a few deep breaths, did a few shallow jumps to help loosen her up a little bit, focused on the building and took off running at a full sprint. When he made it to the building she ran four steps up the side and jumped for the roof.

After making sure she had a firm grip on it she started to heave herself up while her adrenaline was still pumping. Now fully on top of the roof Adrian leaned over, hands on knees, and caught her breath. She then walked over to the edge of the roof, jumped over onto the roof of the shed, and made her way over to the window landing. Looking inside the window she seen what seemed to be some type of hay loft and crawled through. She walked to the edge and looked down to see their new prisoner.

The boy couldn't have been much older than Kale, if not his age. His clothes were dirty and rumpled, his arms tied behind him, and he seemed to be passed out cold. Deciding to take an unknown watch inside the shed, Adrian walked to the edge of the loft and sat down with her back towards the wall. Her right leg was hanging off the loft, her right leg folded, her knee pointed towards the window, her right arm resting against her leg, her left hand gripping the handle of her hunting knife.

She must have fallen asleep at some point because when she woke up it was late afternoon, judging by the amount of sunlight seeping into the shed. She rubbed her eyes and looked down at the lower level when she heard something rustle. _'Oh, right. The kid.'_ she thought as she looked at the prisoner, Randall, who seemed to be awake and alert.

"How old are you, kid?" she asked, startling him from his reaction. He kept looking around until he seen her sitting in the hay loft. Adrian rolled her eyes when he just continued to stare at her. She seen a ladder, which she seemed to have been resting her right leg on, under her and slide down it to the bottom floor.

"I asked you how old you were." she said walking into his line of sight better. "N-Nineteen. What are y'all gonna do with me?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"Don't know. Didn't go to the meeting. So you were with the people that were shooting at my men huh?" she asked folding her arms across her chest. "Y-Yeah. But only because I was told too. I was told that they had killed two of our guys." he said, his voice still shaking.

"If your guys drew first, I'm sure they did." she said back. "So...So why are you in here?" he asked her. She shrugged. "Wanted to see what the new Big Bad Wolf looked like. Don't look so scary to me. Could take you out easy enough if I wanted to." she said looking him over from head to foot. "You aren't so scary. But all those men you got back at your camp could do quite a bit of damage if you got loose and lead them back here." she said looking him in the eyes.

"I wouldn't do that. Y'all saved my life. I would never leave and bring them back to y'all." he said in a rush as if that would make her believe him.

"Yeah. And I used to believe that the dead would be trying to make a damn meal outta me." she said sarcastically.

Just then the door opened and T-Dog was there with a cup of what she assumed was water for the kid.

"Adrian? What the hell are you doin' in here? When did you even get in here?" he asked, confused to see her inside the shed casually chatting with the kid.

"Been in here since the meeting. Sorry T-Dog. I'll leave you to finish your watch." she said walking past him, patting his arm in reassurance.


	21. Dropping the ball

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything that you recognize. Although I would love to have my own personal Daryl Dixon. Short and sweet.**_

_**AN: So Sorry that I haven't posted in a few weeks. Y'all are catchin' up to me again and my fingers haven't been itchin' to write like they were a few weeks ago. But Ima start writing again here soon so fear not my loyal readers!**_

Chapter 21

Since she had been absent most of the previous day, Adrian decided to stay and have dinner with everyone in the camp. She had kept Dale company while he was on watch and had enjoyed his company. The older man was wise and Adrian decided that she would start her own growing and trusting process with him.

After dinner everyone sat around the fire for a little while longer while Adrian went to her tent and stuffed a few things into a bag. She grabbed her brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, a spare change of clothes for in the morning, an extra clip for her gun since she was leaving her bow, and her new hatchet. Then she just waited for everyone to turn in for the night.

It was around ten before everyone turned in, exhausted from the events of the day. Hearing the calls of "good-nights" to each other from outside her tent, Adrian picked up her bag and waited in her dark tent until all was quiet outside. Once everything was quiet, Adrian unzipped her tent just enough to squeeze through, zipped it back up, and then headed off towards Daryl's camp, making sure to stay in the shadows.

When she walked into Daryl's camp he was sitting by the fire, looking deep in thought. "Think too hard, you'll give yourself a headache. You won't try and use that as an excuse to get out of sex tonight, are you?" she said with a grin.

Daryl must not have heard her walk into camp because he jumped when she spoke. "If I had been a walker, I'd a bit your ass before you even heard me. Of course I plan on doin' that anyway. The biting part. Although you do have a nice ass." she smirked dropping her bag on the ground.

"It's late. Didn't think you were comin'." he muttered stoking the fire.

"Well I would have been here sooner but I didn't figure you wanted everybody to see me walkin' out this way with an overnight bag. You know, you bein' a private kinda person and all. Me, personally, I don't care if they know I'm fucking you, but I figured you didn't want it advertised. So I waited until everybody called it a night and then stuck to the shadows." she said picking up her bag and taking it to his tent.

She noticed that he still had the pallet on the floor and it made her smile, which she was sure to wipe off her face before she left the tent. Adrian walked back outside and walked up to Daryl. She pushed him backwards onto the ground and followed him down, straddling his waist. She had her hands on the ground beside his head, her braid had fallen over her right shoulder and was tickling the side of his face. She had so much heat and want in her eyes that they could have burned the skin from his bones.

"I believe, sir, that earlier today to promised to fuck me hard enough and long enough that I would have trouble walking tomorrow. Do you intend to uphold that promise?" she asked.

Daryl's left arm went around her waist while his right caught a handful of her braid and jerked her body onto his.

"Damn right I do, woman." he growl giving her a bruising kiss.

Adrian had been awake for about five minutes before she felt Daryl start to stir. Adrian had to hand it to him, he had kept his promise. She had practically been liquefied by the time she had curled into his side and fallen straight asleep after five straight hours of sex.

She had woke up to find her right arm wrapped around his chest, her right leg wrapped around his, and everything from chest to hips was plastered against his side.

"God I feel like I was hit by a truck." Daryl groaned rubbing his face with his left hand, since his right was around her. "You're not the only one. Except I wasn't hit by a truck. Just got fucked really good by a two hundred pound guy." she laughed.

"God, why did I wake up feelin' like this yesterday mornin'?" he asked still rubbing his face. Adrian groaned when she moved her leg. "Because we didn't go at it quite so hard that night. And because you were drunk." she said.

"Jesus was the other night any thing like last night?" he asked, still not remembering everything from the night before. "No." she said laughing. "Last night was much better. Even though my muscles disagree with me on that point." she said, thinking about maybe moving.

"God, I don't wanna move." she said, dreading the thought of actually having to use her legs. "You're not the only one." Daryl said groaning as he sat up. "How about we both agree not to go at it like that again." Daryl said looking down at her. Adrian smiled at the comment.

"Deal. Although let me remind you that you were the one who made the promise in the first place." she said rolling onto her back and started to gather energy to get up and start her day.

"Yeah well you didn't have to hold me to it. And I wouldn't a made that stupid promise if you hadn't kept lookin' at me like you wanted to burn my clothes off, chain me to the cot, and fuck me 'til my dick fell off." he said slowly getting to his feet. Adrian laughed.

"Which is exactly what I wanted to do. But then you kissed me like there was no tomorrow and I forgot what I had wanted to do to you." she groaned as she sat up.

"Come on. Rest of camp will be wakin' up soon. Might wanna try and get back to your tent so that damn kid of your's won't keep giving me 'burn in hell' looks all day today." Daryl said reaching own to take her hands and help her up. Adrian walked over to her bag on slightly shaky legs and started pulling out her clothes.

She started to pull on her matching black lace bra and thong set when she felt a tingle run up her spine. She turned to see Daryl starring at her. He had been in the middle of buckling his belt when he looked up to see what she had been putting on. And damn him if he wasn't the one wanting to chain her to his cot and fuck the shit out of her this morning.

But they had shit to do, like every day, so he turned and started focusing on getting dressed. The longer he moved the less crappy he felt, though he could really go for a cup of coffee. When he looked back at her, she was fully dressed in a light blue cotton tank top, navy colored jeans, her tan Ranger Joe's, her gun and knife strapped to her thighs, a hatchet tucked through her belt at the small of her back, and was currently working on braiding her hair.

Once they made it back to camp, Rick told everyone that he and Shane were taking Randall about eighteen miles out and leaving him there. Not liking that Rick was going alone with just Shane, Adrian volunteered to go as well. She started to get that tingling feeling again and knew that Daryl, along with a few other members of the group, were starring at her.

"Alright. We'll get whatever we need together, get Randall, and then head out." Rick said walking away. Adrian turned and walked off towards her tent. She was sure that Kale might pop up to lecture her about leaving again, so she left her door unzipped. Since she already had her gun, knife, and hatchet strapped to her all she really had to grab was her bow and some arrows.

She was rifling through all of her arrows, deciding on which ones to take since she decided to only bring about ten, when she heard the flap to her tent rustle and someone step inside. Once she felt that tingle again, she knew who it was. "Aren't you worried somebody might have seen you come in here? Appearances and all, ya know?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Why the hell you goin'? You don't care about what happens to that boy, so why you goin'?" Daryl asked in a low voice so no one outside of the tent could hear him.

"You're right, I don't care about the boy. But I don't like that Rick is just going to ride off with only Shane to cover his back. Shane's getting more and more unstable by the day. Last thing we need is Shane shooting Rick in the back and taking over the group. That day ever comes, I'm packin' my shit and leaving, alone if I have to." she said standing and turning to him.

"But that's not the only reason I'm doing this." she said looking him in the face. "Then why?" he asked really wanting to know her sudden urge to help.

"Name one thing I've actually done for the group since we joined up in Atlanta? I've hunted a few times, sure, but mostly I've stuck to the shadows and spied on everyone. Which is why I know Shane is getting unstable." she said. Then she sighed, shifting her weight.

"Truth is, I told Kale a few days ago that it's time to stop sticking to ourselves. We need to grow, trust other members of the group, become actual members and do our share. Kale has started doing that, as much as he hated it when I told him that. But I haven't really made an attempt at it. Talked to Dale a little, but mostly I've been at your tent at night having great sex. So this is my first real attempt to help." she said lightly rubbing on his jacket covered forearm.

"Can I ask a favor of you?" she said, starring at her hand on his arm.

"What? Watch over your kid?" Daryl said meaning for the statement to have some actual bite to it. Sadly for him, it did not. "No." she said looking up at him. "When no one is looking, do I have permission to kiss you whenever I want?" she whispered.

"Hell no." his mouth said, but his facial expression and eyes told her "Hell yes". "Why would you wanna do a thing like that anyway?" he asked, hoping she didn't take his "Hell no" to heart.

"Because I like kissing you. It's been a long time since I've enjoyed kissing anyone and I enjoy it alot with you." she said, still whispering. Truth was, he enjoyed kissing her too. He's be damned if he ever admitted it though, especially to her. And he didn't like that she had volunteered to go out with Rick and Shane to drop off the kid.

He felt something strange, something he had never felt before in the pit of his stomach when she had said she was going and that just straight up annoyed him.

But he also knew better than to take that annoyance out on her. She was likely to either stab him or annoy him further knowing her. He must have been pretty deep in his thoughts because the next thing he knew, she was pulling his head down and giving him one hell of a kiss, but then again, it seemed most of the kisses he got from her were pretty damn good.

Either that or it had just been so long since he had actually kissed a girl that he had just forgotten what it felt like.

Then he felt that talented tongue of hers invade his mouth and he loved it. But she pulled away all too soon. "Something to hang on for, for later." she whispered, her eyes still closed. Then she opened her eyes and smiled.

"And even though you said no, expect me to kiss you whenever I don't see anybody around. There are too few joys in this world and I'll be damned if you're going to deny me something as simple as a kiss because you're a prude." she said laughing as she left her tent.

She must have fallen asleep at some point during the drive because when they stopped they were outside some sort of school or something. The area around it was fenced off and Rick killed the car when they got close to the gate. Rick and Shane got out of the car to check it out.

Rick and Shane walked up to the fence and a walker was stumbling around by a near by bus. Shane pulled his gun but Rick stopped him from using it and took out his knife. Then the walker started running towards them and crashed against the fence in front of Rick, who then stabbed it in the head.

Rick came back to the car and stuck his head through the door. "We're gonna take a look around, make sure it's safe to leave him here." he told her. "I'll stay here with him then." she said nodding. Then they disappeared behind the fence for about ten or so minutes.

Shane came through the fence, got in the car, and then drove it through the fence to where Rick was. Shane and Adrian got out of the car and met Rick at the back as he was opening the hatch, then Rick and Shane pulled him out and they started walking off a little ways to find a spot to leave him.

They walked pasted a bunch of abandoned heavy duty vehicles and through another fenced in area. Shane and Rick dropped him to his knees between two dusty looking school buses, and then removed the black hood from over his face, the duct tape over his mouth and ears, and the ear buds that were blasting music.

"Where the hell is this?" Randall asked, confused. "You're destination. Enjoy your freedom." Adrian said as they turned to leave. "Come on, don't leave me here!" Randall started yelling. Then he started going on about how he wasn't like the med he had been with, that he could help protect what the group had, and started giving some sob story about his life before the outbreak.

"I went to school with Maggie, for God's sake!" he yelled. That stopped them all in their tracks. "You went to school with Maggie?" Rick demanded starting back in  
Randall's direction. "Answer the question! Did you go to school with Maggie!" Shane yelled at the boy. At first he was speechless. "She didn't know me. But I knew who she was. And who her dad was." he said. Then they all finally digested that information.

"He know's where the farm is, Rick." Shane said rubbing his hand over his head. "He's right, Rick. We can't just leave him here. If he went to school with Maggie then it's very likely that he knows where we're at." Adrian said to him. Then Shane pulled out his gun and pointed it at Randall. "Shane, no!" Rick yelled pushing Shane. The gun went off but missed it's target, just barely.

"Not now, Shane. Just not now." Rick said, his boot covering Shane's gun. "Well then when, Rick?" Shane asked from his spot on the ground. Shane started ranting about how Rick couldn't do what needed to be done. It was heating up between them real fast. Then Shane threw out the one comment that finally broke the camel's back.

"I don't think you can keep them safe." he said referring to Lori and Carl. "Shit." Adrian said seeing where this was going. Rick threw the first punch but Shane blocked it and then headbutted Rick in the face, causing Rick to jerk backwards and fall to the ground.

Shane went for Rick's gun and pulled it from it's holster. Adrian started forwards to help but then Rick jumped up and knocked it from Shane's hand. Now that guns were out of the equation, Adrian had no intension of getting involved.

This fight had been a long time coming, and it needed to be seen through. Shane had to learn that only one of them could be the alpha of the pack, and it wasn't him.  
Rick punched Shane in the face a few times before Shane grabbed Rick and spun them around so Shane could get the upper hand.

Rick and Shane continued to punch at each other, the face, stomach, kidney shots, whatever they could manage at the time. Shane threw Rick against the front of a huge MAC truck and punched him in the face enough to disorient him for a brief moment.

Shane then threw Rick to the ground next to a motorcycle and pushed it over so it fell on it's side onto Rick's leg. Adrian decided that it had went too far and went to go help Rick. She ran over to Shane and grabbed his left arm, attempting, and failing, to hold him back. Shane then reached over and grabbed her arm, pulling her in front of him, where he grabbed both of her upper arms and swung her around where she connected with the front of the MAC truck.

When Shane had swung her around, she had been so surprised that she dropped her bow onto the ground. Shane must have swung her around with all of his might because when she hit the front grill of the truck, she hit had first. She felt her right arm make contact with grill and knew that there would be some serious bruising on that arm come morning. If she made it that long.

When the right side of her head hit the grill, she immediently seen stars. A searing pain shot through her head and then she started to get fuzzy as she hit the ground in front of the truck. She didn't pass out, had fought to stay awake, as hard as that had been. She felt something warm flow down her face and assumed that the hit had cracked her head open.

Adrian tried to bring everything back into focus but all she could see was the dirty asphalt, which kept throwing up what seemed like white flares, and all she heard was a strong ringing in her ears. After a minute the ringing started to fade and she could hear, but the noises sounded muffled. Like she was listening from underwater or something.

She forced herself to sit up and then grabbed onto the grill of the truck, pulling herself up just in time to see Shane throw a huge wrench at Rick's head. The wrench missed Rick and went crashing through a window that was behind Rick.

Shane just stood there, looking at the window, while Rick starred at him in shock. And then she seen the dirty, pale arm reach up from the floor and then the decaying body of a walker came crashing out of the window and down onto Rick.

Rick quickly grabbed the walker and then stabbed it in the head. And then Adrian felt a chill run down her spine when she seen at least ten or more walkers stand up from inside the window an came crashing through the busted window.

Rick grabbed the dead body of the walker he had just killed and rolled it on top of him so the walkers wouldn't notice him. But they had taken fast notice of Shane and Adrian. Shane took off running behind Adrian who had started her miserable attempt at running when she seen them.

In her severe disoriented state, the walkers would have no trouble taking her down if she didn't get a head start. She and Shane ran through the maze of vehicles with the walkers right on Shane's heels. The seen a bus with the door open and quickly ran inside.

Shane tried to push the door closed behind him but there were too many walkers behind him pushing on it to get inside for it to close fully. Adrian looked around for something to help when she seen the door lever to her left. She gripped it with both hands and pulled on it to try and help keep it closed.

"I hope you're fucking happy with yourself right about now, you dick." Adrian growled through clenched teeth.

"Yeah. Picking a fight with Rick. Like fucking children! You're jealous because the fucking quarterback of the team is fucking the lead cheerleader and she don't want anything to do with you. I hope you're fucking proud!' she yelled. Shane hadn't recovered his gun so he was only left with a knife. He cut his palm and then smeared the frame of the door with it to attract walkers there.

He stabbed one or two in the head. And then he lost his knife in the head of a third walker. Looking around for something, Shane caught sight of the large knife strapped to her thigh. "Give me your knife." he said.

Adrian looked at him like he was crazy. Blood from her head injury started to drip into her eyes and was making it hard to see clearly. "Piss on that. You just lost your knife. I ain't givin' you mine!" she yelled at him. Then he looked over to his right and started to panic.

Adrian looked out the windshield to see what he seen and felt her stomach drop. Rick had ahold of Randall and was making a run for it. Leaving her and Shane alone, trapped inside of a bus with walkers trying to break down through the door. "Shit!" Adrian yelled pulling harder on the lever, trying to keep the walkers out as long as possible now that they were on their own.

"Shane. Just know that if we get bitten and I turn, just know that I will eat every bit of flesh from your bones for this." she growled, her arms beginning to burn from intense strain she was putting on them. Just then they seen Shane's ugly green car come flying into the lot. Rick pulled himself out of the window and started to fire off rounds. "Shane! Head for the back of the bus!" Rick screamed at them.

Adrian and Shane looked at each other for a second and then Adrian took off running for the the exit door with Shane hot on her heels. She threw open the door just as the car pulled up and jumped through the window with Shane right behind her.

"Go!" she heard Rick yell. And then she realized that Randall was the one driving the car. But his neck was duct taped to the headrest of the drivers seat. Randall crashed through the fence and took off don the road and out of town.

"Thanks for not leavin' me man." Shane said to Rick from the back seat.

Adrian wasnt sure of exactly when she did it, but she passed out.


	22. The Big Bad Wolf

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. I only lay claim to Adrian and Kale.**_

**_AN: So I realize that I haven't updated in a while. For a while there I got into Riddick and then King Arthur. But I have finally relapsed back to The Walking Dead. Please read and review to let me know how you think the story is going so far. As always ideas are welcome and if they peak my interest enough, I might even twist them into my story. _**

**_P.S. I like this chapter. So far I think it might even be my favorite chapter. And since this is my favorite chapter, please let me know which part was your favorite in either this chapter or the story._**

Chapter 22

When Adrian opened her eyes, which had to have been hours later since it looked like it was close to sunset, she realized she was laying on something soft. She then realized it had to have been a been because she was in a room. She sat up with a groan and realized that she heard footsteps in the hall. Then the door opened and Kale was standing in the door.

He looked at her surprised and then turned an went back into the hall. "Hershal! She's awake!" he yelled. His yelling didn't help her raging headache.

"Kale, sweetie, please, keep it to a dull roar." she whispered, groaning again. "Sorry." he said as she heard more footsteps coming down the hall.

In walked Hershal with Rick a few steps behind. Rick's face was pretty messed up from the fight he and Shane had had. Herhsal walked over to her and started checking her over. "How are you feeling?" Herhsal asked her shining a small light into her eyes, which sent a searing pain through her head. She jerked back with a groan. "Like I hit a truck. And I have the champion of all headaches and you flashing that light in my face isn't helping." she said, her eyes closed.

"I'm checking your pupil reaction to make sure you don't have a concussion. Rick said you cracked your head pretty hard." he said forcing her head back to him so he could check her other eye.

"Well that much is true. Got the internal fireworks and stars show goin' on there for a while." she said trying to ignore the pain as he flashed the light into her other eye. "Follow my finger." Hershal said. She passed all of his tests.

"Well you'll have a terrible headache for a day or so but you'll be fine. Just try not to hit your head on anything. You might actually give yourself a concussion next time." Hershal said handing her what looked like Ibuprofien for her headache. She threw them back and accepted the small glass of water that had been sitting on the side table.

"So can I leave the house? You know, clean bill of health and all." she asked.  
"Yes. But take it easy. You're still a little disoriented so try not to strain your body." Hershal said leaving the room. Kale helped her out to her tent where she laid down for the next few hours, taking a short nap to help with the headache. When she woke up it was dark inside her tent. She smelled food and looked around until she seen a small plate of food on the floor.

She made quick work of the small meal of what tasted like squirrel meat. She then decided to go out for a walk. She took only her knife for protection and headed off towards Daryl's camp, where she could still see a small fire going.

Daryl was surprised to see Adrian walking into his camp, as if she owned the damn thing, and laid down on the ground beside him. "Fuck, I feel like shit." she sighed as she threw her arm over her eyes. "Yeah well you looked pretty bad when y'all got back today." he said poking the fire, remembering how everyone had been in a tizzy to see a bloody Rick and Shane, a still captive Randall, and a bloody and passed out Adrian.

She had had blood covering the whole right side of her face. He had been really shocked to see her like that but her teenager beat him to the punch with the question of "What the hell happened?". Rick said that she had hit the front of a semi truck pretty hard but had managed to stay awake long enough for them all to get out of there.

"I feel like some kind of creature that was dragged out of it's deep, dark, hiding place." she said removing her arm from over her face. She didn't look so bad now that she was cleaned up. He could see that most of her upper right arm was a matting of blue and black bruising. The cut, which curved around her right eye, was a few inches long and starting to bruise, but it wasn't deep. Head wounds always bleed alot.

"You don't look so bad. At least your clean, if nothing else. And alive for that matter." Daryl said, standing to stretch. Then he looked down at Adrian and was punched in the gut with instant lust. "I'm hittin' it for the night. You comin' or goin' back?" he asked down at her. She opened her eyes to look up at him. "I'll stay. Don't have the energy to walk back to my tent." she said reaching her left arm up for him to take so she could get to her feet.

He took it and helped her stand, holding onto her arm when she swayed on her feet. "You're actin' like you're drunk." Daryl said still holding on to her arm as they made their way to his tent. "Yeah, well you take on the front grill of a MAC truck and see how steady you are on your feet afterwards." she mumbled as she stumbled into the tent.

"Yeah yeah." he grumbled, following her inside, zipping up the tent behind him. "Sit your ass down before you bust it fallin'." he said helping her down onto the pallet. Adrian sat down without a fight. "Yeah, well the only reason you don't want me to bust my ass is because you like it so much. It's one of your favorite things to grab during sex." she said, smirking while taking off her boots, tank top, and jeans.  
_'Ain't that the truth.'_ Daryl thought rifling through his stuff.

"Never woulda pegged you for an ass man. Which now that I think about it, I don't know why I didn't. You look like an ass man." she said laying down on her back in only her matching black lace underwear. "Is that right?" he said finding what he was looking for.

Daryl took his boots off and sat down beside her. Grabbing her chin he gently moved it to the side so he could take in the real damage. It wasn't so bad. Would probably be good as new in a week. She heard him pop something open and opened her eyes to see what it was.

When she seen what it was, it made her smile. "The medicine tin." she whispered, the smile still on her face when she felt him lightly applying the herbal medicine she had put on his wounds the week before.

"Yeah, well, let's just call this payback. You did this for me, now I'm doin' it for you. We're square." he said looking at her. "And when one of us gets hurt again? What then? Just leave it be or do we start the square all over again?" she asked suddenly starting to feel tired again.

"I guess it depends on how bad the injury is, I suppose." Daryl said looking back at her cut. "You should keep your hair up tonight. Keep it outta that mess on your head." Daryl suggested as he wiped his hand and put the tin back.

"Hey, Daryl?" she mumbled already half asleep. "Yeah?" he said just looking at her. "Can we skip sex tonight? I don't think I'ma make it that long tonight." she said barely above a whisper.

"Didn't think you was. Go on to sleep. You can make it up to me in the morning." he said as she drifted off to sleep. She had moved the top blanket so she was laying on the bottom one. Her head was still on her good side since she never moved it after he had tilted it to put the medicine on her cut. Her hands were resting on her stomach and her breathing was slow and even.

_ 'That must a been some kinda hit with that truck for her to be out most of the damn day.'_ he thought looking at her sleeping. It was starting to get cold at night. They were going to need to rack up on warmer clothes soon and if she slept like this in her own tent at night, she was going to get sick real quick.

On nights when she slept with him in his tent it was fine since his body heat would keep her warm. She didn't have much on her to keep her warm. Couldn't have weighed more than maybe a hundred and twenty pounds, if that. She had lost a little weight since he had first met her, but then again so had the rest of the group. Daryl stayed up a little longer and watch her sleep.

When he had seen Rick pull her unconscious body from the car he had been worried. He felt that strange feeling in the pit of his stomach again. He still didn't know what it was, but he was pretty sure he didn't like it. Daryl then took his shirt and pants off, rolled onto his back and pulled the covers over them.

His hands were under his head and he had just closed his eyes when he felt her roll over and curl into his side, her bruised arm over his chest, her hand resting over his heart, and her leg curled around his. He never would have taken her for a cuddler by looking at her. She always seemed like she wanted space and to be alone, so it had came as a shock to him to discover that at night she craved human contact.

He removed his right arm from under his head and curled it around her. Soon after, being warm and comfortable, he fell asleep.

The next morning Adrian woke up to the sound of a zipper. She didn't react badly to it since she woke up by small degrees. She could tell it was morning because there was light in the tent. She was warm and felt safe for some unknown reason. It had been a while since she had felt truly safe.

"Hey. Come on, time to get up." she heard Daryl's gravelly voice say. She liked the sound of his voice when he spoke in that tone of voice. "Come on. Get up. I went an' snuck some spare clothes outta your tent." he said as she felt something fall on her.

"Come on. Rick wants me to talk to Randall. Find out more about his group. Maybe a pretty girl will loosen his tongue up where a beatin' won't." Daryl said nudging her with his boot. "Alright, alright. I'm gettin' up. So demanding." she said as she threw the light blanket off of her and pulled on the black cotton long sleeve that reached down to her palms and some ripped up, light blue, boot cut jeans.

When she was dressed and washed up she followed Daryl to the shed where Randall was being held. Daryl and Adrian walked into the shed to see Randall sitting on the floor with his hands tied behind his back. Daryl put his crossbow onto a table a few yards from Randall and then took off his jacket and threw it over the weapon. Adrian jumped up onto the table beside Daryl's stuff while Daryl picked the boy up and put him in a chair. Adrian had both grown bored and was enjoying the interegation. She didn't so much care for Randall's pleading or the sound of Daryl's fist making contact with the boys' face. But she did enjoy watching Daryl pace around and display his strength.

"I told you man." Randall started saying again. It was said quite often. "You ain't told me shit." Daryl said, punching the kid in the face, which caused him to fall out of the chair. "How many men in your group?" Daryl asked. Randall said nothing. Daryl just looked at him and slowly unsheathed his knife. Randall started chanting no at the sight of the knife.

Adrian was a little worried when he pulled out the knife and a sigh of relief passed her lips when it connected with the floor a few inches from Randall's leg. "Thirty! Thirty men!" Randall yelled looking at the knife so close to his leg. When Daryl asked where they were camped, and Randall gave him an answer he didn't like Daryl ripped the piece of duct tape off of the scab on his injured leg. Then he pressed his knife to the scab on Randall's leg.

"Daryl. Dear." Adrian called out to him in an almost sweetly bored like manner. Daryl looked at her from over his shoulder from his place on the floor. That imagine alone made her hot and bothered all over and want to get naked.

But she restrained herself. Just barely.

"What?" he asked. She crooked her finger at him, a silent command to come to her. Daryl looked back at Randall and then jerked himself, and the knife, off the floor and walked over to her.

"There a reason you stoppin' me? What, I bein' too hard on the kid or somethin'?" Daryl snapped off. "No. But you brought me here for more than to just to watch you go caveman on the kid. And I'm enjoying watching you immensely, I really am. But you said a pretty girl being here might loosen his tongue. So let's see if you were right." she said in a low voice so Randall wouldn't hear them talking. "Fine. You try then." he said.

Adrian lightly jumped down from the table and walked over to Randall, the picture of calm and collected. She knelt down by his feet and looked him in his swollen, bloody face.

"Where are your men camped at and what kind of weapons do they have, Randall?" she asked him. "Why you lettin' him beat on me? You've been keepin' an eye on me since I got here to make sure nobody hurt me." Randall said, trying to change the subject.

"It wasn't to protect you. It was to make sure that a certain member of our group didn't just come in here and blow your brains out through the back of your skull. Now  
I'll ask again. Where are your men camped and what kind of weaponry do they have?" she asked calmly again. "He ain't gonna tell you nothin'. Just let me at him." she heard Daryl say from behind her.

"Shut up, Daryl." she said still looking at Randall.

"Randall, if you think this is some kind of good cop, bad cop routine where Daryl's the bad guy and I'm the good guy, let me assure you, it's not. See, now I'm not nice at all. People like your men have tried to take what I have before. Needless to say they didn't win that battle because I killed them before they killed me. And let me assure you, those bodies will never be found." she said keeping eye contact.  
When he still didn't say anything, Adrian's face turned hard. "I'm going to ask you one more time." she said as she quickly grabbed her large hunting knife and slammed it down into the floor three inches from Randall's nuts. Randall yelped and tried to jump back.

"Where are your men and what kind of weapons do the have!" she yelled, loosing her patience.

"I don't know where they are! We had us a camp by the highway about five miles or so from town! They have automatic rifles, some rocket launchers, stuff like that!" Randall yelled out.

"I met them on the road. They took me in." Randall said, starting to talk a little more calmly since the immedent danger of her knife slowly slipped away from between his legs. She stood up and walked over to stand by Daryl.

"Keep talking." she warned.

"It wasn't just men that they took in. They took in a a whole group of people. Women and children, just like you got. But only the men would go out to scavenge supplies. But then one night, we came up on this camp. A guy and his two daughters." he said. She didn't like where this was going.

"Teenagers. Real young. Real cute." he said with a little caution in his voice. She felt Daryl tense up the same moment she did. "And these guys...they made the guy watch. Didn't kill any of 'em afterwards. Just made the guy watch." he said. Then he caught sight of the look on Adrian and Daryl's face.

"No, but I didn't touch those girls. I ain't like that." he rushed to say, as if it would save him the beating.

"Daryl." she said resheathing her knife, no emotion in her voice or face. She walked back to the table and leaned against it as Daryl went back to punching and kicking the boy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After Adrian and Daryl finished "talking" to Randall they walked back to the camp and tell Rick what they had learned. But she had left that to Daryl, storming off to her tent to stew in her mood. "Boy's got a gang. Thirty men and they ain't lookin' to make friends." she heard Daryl's faint voice tell the group.

"They decide to roll through here, all our men's dead. And the women, they'll wish they were." he continued. Then she heard bits and pieces of the following conversation. Her ears picked up "Eliminating the threat." and "He's just a boy."  
Adrian's hold on her sanity at that moment was slipping and fast. She already had her knife so she grabbed her hatchet, exited her tent like the violent storm she felt like, and took off towards the woods in a dead run.

Hearing all the noise that Adrian had been making, she had the groups full attention by the time she exited her tent and took off for the woods. "What's her problem?" Andrea asked. Daryl was starring in the direction that Adrian had taken off in, wondering what her deal was. She had been tense ever since Randall had told them about the men in his group raping those teenage girls they had found and hadn't loosened up since.

He was still starring in that direction when he felt someone walk up to him. "What was said in there? I haven't seen her like this since Atlanta." he heard Kale ask him. "Hell if I know what set her off. Kid was tellin' us about his group. How the all men scavenge parties had a nasty habit of rapin' any women they came across. The was about the time that her spine turned into steel." Daryl said not seeing Kale's face at the information.

"Shit." he heard before Kale took off in the direction that Adrian had disappeared.  
"Where the hell's he goin'?" Glenn asked. "No clue. Just a puppy runnin' after his master again. Ain't nothin' unusual." Daryl said taking off in the direction of his camp.

After cleaning up his busted knuckles, Daryl decided to go out and check the area for walkers, or find food, whichever came first. But before he could, Dale showed up. "The point of comin' up here was to get away from you people." he said focusing on the arrows he was putting in the small holder on his crossbow.

"Is that right? So what's Adrian doin' out here every night if you want to be alone?"Dale asked.

The question brought Daryl up short and he glared at the older man. "I'm on watch duty at night, so I see her sneaking her way out here. Not that she tries very hard to hide mind you." Dale said as a way of explanation. "Ain't none of your damn business what she's doin' up here. That's our business. Damn nosy people." Daryl said going back to his arrows.

"What you up here for anyway? Carol send you or somethin'?" he asked the old man. "Carol's not the only one worried about you. Your new role in the group." Dale said. Daryl looked at the older man like he was half crazy.

"This group is broken. Has been for a while now. I'm better off on my own." he said. Maybe if he said it enough times, he would start to believe it, otherwise why hadn't he left already?

"I wanted to talk to you about Randall." Dale said changing the subject. "I don't care what happens to him." Daryl said grabbing his jacket and putting it on. "So you don't care if the boy lives or dies?" Dale asked.

"Nope." Daryl said adjusting the collar of his jacket. "Then why not take a stand with me? Try to save the boy's life. If it really doesn't matter one way or the other to you?" Dale asked.

"Now, you're a decent man. Torturing people? That isn't you. Rick is a decent man also. Now Shane..." Dale trailed off not needing to say anything about Shane for Daryl to understand.

"Why you say that? 'Cause he killed Otis?" Daryl asked. Dale instantly went on alert. "Did Shane tell you that?" Dale asked taking a few steps towards Daryl.

"Told some story. About how Otis covered his ass so he could get away. And then he shows up with the dead guys' gun. Rick ain't stupid, Dale. If he ain't figured it out it's because he didn't wanna." Daryl said turning.

"Like I said, this group is broken." he said as he walked off into the woods.

Daryl had been in the woods for a few hours and had seen at least a dozen dead walkers. He was on his way back to camp when he seen the familiar body of Adrian sitting in a tree, looking off into nothing.

"What the hell you doin' up there?" he asked. She looked down at him as if just realizing he was there. Then he caught sight of her face. He couldn't tell because her clothes were mostly dark but her face was covered in blood and judging by the blackness of it's color it was walker blood.

"You the one killed all them walkers I been findin' out here today?" he tried again. "Yeah. Needed some stress release. Hell of a work out. Close call a time or two." she said making her way down the tree to him. When her feet touched the ground he made a full assessment of her appearance.

"You're a fuckin' mess, woman." Daryl said bluntly. "What every lady loves to hear. You're quite the charmer Daryl Dixon." she said walking off in the direction of a shallow creek.

When Daryl showed up at the creek a few minutes later, Adrian was scrubbing at her dried bloody cheeks. When her hands and face were finally clean they walked out of the woods in silence. "Come on." Daryl said to her. "Rick wants everybody at the house to talk about Randall. Gave Dale the day to try and change everybody's minds about killin' the kid." he said walking off towards the farm house, making sure she was following him.

They all met up in the living room of the house. Andrea, Shane, T-Dog, Patrica, Maggie, and Hershal took up one side while Dale, Glenn, Carol, Lori, and Rick took up the other. Adrian and Daryl were standing a few feet behind them. Daryl was leaning on his side against a small dresser while Adrian had her back reclined against the wall across from him.

"So how do we do this? Vote?" Glenn asked, breaking the ice. "Let's talk through the options first." Rick said. "I see only one way for us to go forward." Shane said. Again. "Killing him. Right?" Dale asked.

"Yeah, Shane. We all know what your opinion is on the matter, we heard you the first time around. And the second and the third." Adrian said in a bored tone of voice.

"Why even take a vote? We all know which way the wind is blowing here." Dale said defensively. "Well if people think we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick said to Dale. "Well it's a small group. Maybe just me and Glenn." Dale said. The Glenn started to get nervous and couldn't look at Dale in the face. Dale starred at him in disbelief. "They've got you scared!" Dale exclaimed.

"He's not one of us. And we've lost too many people as it is." Glenn told him. Adrian snorted. "I'm barely one of you Glenn. Wanna have me put down too?" Adrian asked, bite in her tone. Dale continued his defensive argument with the group. Adrian listened but kept her mouth shut for the most part.

"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" Hershal asked. "You barely came back last time." Lori said to Rick. "Yeah, no thanks to someone loosing his temper because he didn't get his way and throwing a freaking wrench into a room full of walkers." Adrian said pointedly starring at Shane.

"You been talkin' in circles all day. You just wanna keep talkin' in circles?" Daryl asked. "This is a young man's life! And it's worth more than a five minute conversation!" Dale exclaimed at them all. "This is what it comes down to? We kill a man because we don't know what else to do with him?" Dale asked them all. "How are we any different from those thirty men we're so afraid of?" Dale said.

"Stop it!" Carol yelled. "Just stop fighting already. Please, decide, either of you, bother of you but leave me out of this. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this." Carol said from her place by the door. "Yeah  
that's right, Carol. Go ahead and stick your head back into the sand. Try to avoid all the hard decisions." Adrian said, still starring at a spot on the wall opposite her. Daryl gave her a hard glare but she barely noticed.

"Anybody who wants the floor before we decide has the chance." Rick said. Maggie and Patrica both sat down. Everyone was quiet for a minute before Adrian spoke up.

"When you first met me Rick, you knew me for a total of a day before you asked me to join your group. You didn't know me and Kale from Adam. For all you knew we were just fooling you all to take what we wanted but you asked us to join you anyway. Asked a perfect stranger, whom no one other than your son knew, to join this group that doesn't wanna speak their minds because they're afraid of something that might happen. I can think of a person or two that deserved to be put down more than Big Bad Wolf we got chained up in the shed." she said before she spoke again.

"So when is my meeting gonna be about how you're gonna put me down, huh? Because, please, I would love to be party to that. Complete virtual stranger, a member of the group. And I can tell you this, I'm far more dangerous than that boy you're wantin' to kill. Hell, I can think of at least three other people in this room more dangerous than that boy. And you wanna kill him simply because it's the easiest way? Well, hell boys, why don't y'all come an fetch me when y'all go to kill the boy. You can finish me off too." Adrian said, practically spitting venom.

"Isn't there anybody else that's gonna stand with me?" Dale asked. A minute later Andrea spoke up. "He's right. We should try to find another way." she said looking at Dale. "Anybody else?" Rick asked. No one else spoke up.

"Y'all gonna watch too?" Dale asked trying to keep his emotions at bay. "No, you won't. You'll just hide your head in your tents and forget that we're slaughtering a human being." he said shaking his head. "Well I won't be party to it." he said firmly. Dale walked out of the room and stopped by Daryl, putting his hand on the younger mans' shoulder. "This group is broken." he said before he left the house. Everyone was silent for a moment.

Adrian laughed a cold, humorless laugh. "Way to go, Shane. Very well done. You sure do know how to throw a string of events together, don't you?" Adrian said looking at the unstable man across the room.

"So all this is my fault?" Shane said pushing himself from the mantle he was leaning against. Adrian pushed herself from the wall and faced the much bigger man across the room. "You bet your skippy ass it is." she said, itching for a fight and he was the easiest one to tempt into one, even if what she was saying to tempt him was true.

"Please, enlighten me on how all of this is my fault?" Shane asked wanting to hear this. "Oh where to start?" she sneered at him. She had only ever hated two men in her life as much as she hated Shane.

"How about when you tore the barn doors apart and killed all those walkers that Herhsal and his family believed were only sick people? If you hadn't done that then Hershal never would have went to town to drown his sorrows in a shot glass. And because Hershal was in town, and being the only doctor here and we need him considering that Lori is pregnant, Rick and Glenn had to go and get him. And because they had to go and get him, they were attacked, which lead to them meeting Randall and bringing him back here." she said her tone getting colder and colder by the second.

"All because the Beta dog couldn't stand not calling the shots anymore and made a call behind the Alpha's back. I told you in the swamp that day when we handed you those guns, you better own up to the consequences of your actions. And I'll be damned if you aren't tryin' to now throw the blame off onto Rick for being human and wanting to save a damn life." she spat at him.

Shane's face hardened up at being called the Beta of the pack. Then he started stalking towards her, ready for a fight and Adrian started towards him. Rick stood in his way holding him back from getting to Adrian, while Daryl went for her, grabbing her around the waist and hauling her outside.

"Come on. Come at me again! I'm ready for you this time you bastard! Come at me and I'll slice you open from your balls to your chin and leave you out on the higway for walker bait!" she screamed at him.

Daryl had a hard, firm grip on her so as not to let her slip from his grasp. He left the house and started towards his tent across the field. She fought and kicked and screamed, demanding to be let go the whole way. Once Daryl got to his tent he walked through the door and dropped her on top of the pallet. She hadn't been prepared for the sudden drop and had fallen onto her ass then then her back. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and started to get up.

"Don't." he snapped at her turning to zip up the door and tossed his crossbow onto his unused cot. His hands settled onto his hips and he glared down at her, not speaking for a minute. He hated to be around women when they got angry, mostly because they were already bitches and got angry over the littlest thing.

But Adrian Hunter was sexy as hell when pissed off. Her hair was still in a thick braid behind her and her clothes were beyond dirty. Her pale skin was flushed from anger, she was panting like crazy from not only her anger but also from fighting him the whole way from the house to the tent, and her eyes were brighter than he had ever seen them.

She was sexy as hell and he instantly went hard just looking at her. But that would have to come later. Right now he needed to figure out what her problem was. She had been off all day and way only getting worse.

"What the hell is wrong with you, huh? Pickin' a fight with Shane? That man's got a foot and probably eighty pounds on you and your gonna pick a fight with him in the middle of the house? What the hell's wrong with you woman?" he demanded trying to keep his mind out of her pants for the time being.

"So what if he's bigger than me? I've fought bigger, and won. All of this is Shane's fault. He tore open the barn, started making calls behind Rick's back. And because he did Hershal ran off and Rick and Glenn had to go and get him. And because Rick and Glenn and Hershal are decent people, they brought an abandoned boy back here." she said still panting.

"And then we go to leave him out in the middle of town but then find out he knows Maggie and possibly the location of the farm. And Shane wants to shoot him. Then when Rick says no, Shane throws a bitch fit. Tries to kill Rick three times before I intervene and what does the bastard do? Throws me head first into the damn grill of a semi! And because he couldn't shoot Rick he grabbed a damn wrench and threw it at Rick's head. It missed Rick and went through a damn window. A window leading to a damn room full of walkers. He almost got four people killed because he's unstable! And he's only getting worse! And he wants to kill that boy when he's more dangerous than anybody!" she yelled at him from her spot on the floor.

Daryl started to feel that strange feeling in his gut again and he was finally able to identify it. He realized what it was now because he had gotten the feeling when she had told him that Shane was the reason she had been so injured on their way back from dropping Randall off.

Hearing that he had thrown her head first at a truck made Daryl want to go back to that farm house and beat Shane's face in. He was feeling protective of her. Oh he knew very well that she could hold her own when she had to, but she couldn't win them all on her own. She needed him in some ways but she didn't know it yet because the occasion for her to need him had yet to arise.

"You can't go sayin' stuff like that in front of the group. Threatin' to cut Shane open and leave him for walker bait, you probably just scared the piss outta everybody in that house." he said trying to make her see sense.

"They should be afraid. None of you realize just how fucking dangerous I am. I could kill everyone in camp in their sleep and they would never see it coming." she said, starting to calm down.

"But I'm not that kind of person. I've killed the living to protect what's mine before." she said. "That's what Rick's tryin' to do with Randall. Protect his own." Daryl threw in.

"I killed men who meant to kill me and Seth or me and Kale. But only when they came at me with their weapons drawn. When we were out at the development and Randall was free and the walkers were after us, he didn't come after us. He tried to get away. If he had grabbed a gun or came at one of us with a knife, then fine, shoot him because he is a danger. But you and me and Rick and Shane are far more dangerous than a twenty year old boy." she said, the fight coming back into her eyes.

Daryl couldn't hold back any longer. She was just too damn sexy to resist when she was all fired up an he couldn't resist any longer. He came down on top of her fast enough to surprise her. He attacked her lips like he was a man dying of thirst and they were a cold glass of water. He went at her as usual, rough. He pulled back and realized that at some point he had twisted her braid around his fist and and forced her head back for his attack.

She was panting hard again, only this time from arousal, and her eyes were closed. "Look at me." he growled. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up into his gorgeous light blue ones.

"You ever tell me to shut up again, like you did in the shed today, and I'll bring you back here and spank that sweet little ass of yours." he growled, his eyes burning with his lust for her.

"You have quite the dirty mouth on you, Mr. Dixon. But it could be quite interesting to see how that would play out." she said grinning. She quickly lost her grin when he then started to attack her neck, licking and biting his way down to that one sweet spot that made her moan every time.

Then he found it and she gasped and moaned his name.


	23. Winter shit storm

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. I only lay claim to Adrian and Kale.**_

**_AN: So I have decided that I would be nice and post another chapter this week since I am now a few chapters ahead. Who else is excited about Season 4 of TWD airing in 36 days?!_**

Chapter 23

A few hours later Daryl was quietly moving around the tent getting dressed. They had managed three rounds of hard, rough sex before she had been tired enough to try and sleep. She had never told him what had caused her sudden mood swing, but then again he after he had gotten her naked, he hadn't cared enough to ask.

After he had put all of his clothes back on and had his crossbow slung over his shoulder, Daryl started for the door but the sight of Adrian's sleeping body caught his eye. She was always tense and guarded when she was awake but peaceful when asleep. It made her seem softer, not quite so tough as when she was awake, and he kind of liked it.

She was laying on her left side, partially on his side of the pallet since he had somehow managed to slip out from under her without waking her up.

Her head was on the edge of his pillow, her face half buried in the pillow, her right arm was stretched across the rest of his pillow, her leg was hiked up like it had been when she had it wrapped around his leg, the light blanket covering her was half tangled around her hips, and her loose hair was fanned out behind her. All in all she looked like a beautiful, well satisfied woman.

Daryl then mentally kicked himself for starring at her while she was sleeping like some love sick fool and unzipped the tent and left, zipping it back up behind him.

Adrian was in a wonderful place. She was in a state of where she was asleep but not asleep. She was warm, in a good mood for some reason, and knew she was in a safe place. Adrian internally smiled at herself, happy to be so relaxed for the first time since before the outbreak.

Then she was jerked out of her peaceful place by a high pitched and pain filled scream. Adrian jerked up into a sitting position and looked around wildly, taking in her surroundings. Daryl's tent.

Then she heard the scream again. She threw off the light blanket, quickly threw on her panties, grabbed the first shirt she seen, which surprisingly enough was a black, cotton long sleeved shirt of Daryl's which fell to her midthigh, threw on her boots, not even bothering to properly lace them up and foregoing any pants, grabbed her knife, and ran out of the tent in the direction of the screams. Which seemed to be coming from the field not too far from Daryl's campsite.

Adrian heard Daryl screaming for help and ran in that direction. She reached the spot the same time as everyone else. She felt as if the blood in her veins had turned to ice. Dale lay on the ground, his stomach torn open, and the dead body of a walker a few yards away.

Dale had stopped screaming but had to be in so much pain. Rich screamed for Hershal to help their friend but Hershal said that there was nothing he could do. Andrea was kneeling beside Dale crying. Adrian hadn't even realized she had dropped her knife until she heard the faint sound of metal hitting the ground.

She had only started to get to really know Dale and now he was as good as dead. "He's suffering. Do something!" Andrea cried at no one in general. Rick took out his gun and aimed it at Dale's head but Daryl walked up to him and gently took it from him, willing to take over the duty of putting Dale out of his misery.

He knelt down beside the suffering man, cocked the gun, and aimed it at his forehead. Dale raised his head, putting it against the barrel of the gun, his eyes telling Daryl to please do it. Everyone was quiet except for the sounds of those who were crying.

"Sorry brother." Daryl said just before he pulled the trigger. The loud shot echoed through the still night.

The next morning Daryl woke up to an empty tent. The night before the men had carried Dale's body back to the camp and decided to wait until daylight to bury him. Daryl hadn't stuck around after the decision had been made to wait until morning to bury Dale's body. After it had been decided he took off towards his tent.

To his surprise Adrian was back in his tent still dressed in one of his few, if not his only, long sleeved shirt. At least she was wearing clothes since it was cold outside. Daryl laid down back onto the pallet and took his boots and jacket off.

Daryl just sat there for a minute before Adrian straddled his waist. At first he thought that he just wanted sex again but then felt her hug one arm around his shoulders and the other around his head, as if she was consoling a small child.

"I'm sorry about Dale." she whispered. They were the only words spoken between the two of them for the rest of the night. They finally fell asleep after an hour of sitting like that. And when Daryl woke up around dawn, Adrian was gone.

He looked around and noticed that her shirt, jeans, boots, and weapons were all gone.

As was his shirt that she had fallen asleep in the night before.

Adrian woke up just before dawn and decided to get away from the farm for a while. It was getting colder by the day and Adrian hadn't felt like going back to her tent for one of her jackets and decided to just keep Daryl's shirt to help keep her warm.

Adrian knew about the service they were going to have for Dale but she decided to attend from afar.

When she had woken up she knew that she needed to get away from it all and had decided to spend as much time in the woods as possible that day. After everyone disbanded after Dale's service she seen a few members of the group pile up into one of the trucks and drive off of the farm.

Adrian knew that she wasn't so good at tracking but it wasn't hard to follow the trail of a walker. When Adrian finally looked up through the trees to get a look at the sun she figured that it had to be somewhere around noon or so.

_ 'A few more hours and then I'll head back.'_ she thought to herself as she wiped the thick, black coat of walker blood from her knife.

When she had first entered the woods that morning she hadn't had a set destination in her mind, so she just wondered around aimlessly and killed any walker she came across.

Which had racked up into double digits in the past six or seven hours that she had been out.

She knew it wouldn't please more than just one member of the group that she had wondered off again without telling anyone, but she was a grown woman and do what she damn well pleased.

A few hours later Adrian walked back towards the farm house, noticing that Daryl's tent and motorcycle were missing from their usual spot. She walked up to the house and noticed that all of the tents had been taken down and all of the vehicles were close to the house now.

She didn't see her tent anywhere and assumed that either Kale or Daryl had packed it up for her. Her bet was more on Kale than Daryl. Even though she had told Kale to go and do his own thing, he still managed to do things for her when she wasn't around. She was glad that he had been making friends and spending more time with Jimmy, Beth, Glenn, and Maggie.

Adrian knew that she was quite a sight and in desperate need of a shower. She tracked Kale down to find out what was going on. He told her that Hershal wanted everyone to move into the house since it was getting dangerous for everyone to be staying outside. Rick and Daryl were going to take Randall back out and drop him off later as well.

Kale pointed to her stuff on the porch and she grabbed her bag and headed towards the upstairs bathroom for a quick shower. After her shower Adrian dug through her bag and decided to wear a thin pair of black leggings, a light blue spaghetti strap tank top, a thin cotton long sleeve t-shirt over it, a pair of black skinny jeans over her leggings, and her boots.

While she was putting away her dirty clothes she picked up Daryl's shirt and after thinking about it for a minute put it on over thin long sleeve. Never wanting to be caught without her weapons, she also strapped on her hunting knife and her gun, grabbed her bag, and exited the bathroom.

Everyone was busy moving all of their things into the house when Adria came downstairs. She was at a bit of a loss of what to do since all of her clothes and weapons, aside from the ones she was wearing, were all packed into two large duffel bags. Not wanting to be in everyone's way, Adrian decided to go and play guard duty over in the shed with Randall.

She was about halfway there when she seen Shane walk inside. Curious and suspicious of his behavior, Adrian ducked behind a tree and then silently made her was over to the tree line so she could get a better view of the shed and not be spotted.

About ten minutes later Shane opened the door to the shed, looked around, reached inside and then pulled a still blindfolded and gagged Randall out of the shed and quickly into the woods. Adrian was glad of her decision to keep a lookout on the shed up in one of the thicker trees instead of on the ground, since Shane and Randall walked right underneath her and never even knew it.

Adrian knew that Shane was crazy but this was just another example of him making decisions behind Rick's back.

Wanting to know just how far he was going to push the situation, Adrian decided to do one of the things she did best, and shadowed Shane and Randall without them being any the wiser about it.

Adrian had been shadowing the pair for at least fifteen or twenty minutes. Shane had stopped Randall, taken off the blindfold and duct tape that gagged him, and gave him some story about tired of being with the group and wanting Randall to take him to his.

Since she started following Shane and Randall, she had never been more than twenty-five or thirty feet away from them. She was hiding behind a tree not far from them when she seen Shane looking around.

Then she heard a scuffle, followed by a scream cut short by the sound of a loud snap.

Shane then looked around and caught sight of a thick tree to his right. He then took a few deep breaths and ran face first into the tree. He then backed away, groaned in pain, and headed back towards the farm.

Adrian moved out from behind her tree when Shane was no longer in sight and walked to the tree he had ran into. There was a bit of blood on the rough bark of the tree and a few feet away was the obviously dead body of Randall.

"Twisted bastard snapped his neck." she muttered to herself before she took off after Shane.

Adrian was about ten feet away from Shane on a thick branch when she noticed the commotion around the shed that once held Randall. Adrian smiled wickedly to herself and looked down at a now slightly paniced Shane.

_'Try and talk your way out of this one, you sick bastard.'_ she thought.

Shane hid his gun under a pile of leaves a few feet away from the tree Adrian was hiding in and then started screaming. "Rick!" Shane then stormed out of the woods, still screaming. "Rick! He's loose! Little bastard knocked me in the face, took my gun, and ran off!" he yelled.

_'Damn. Not a bad way to talk himself outta this one.'_ Adrian thought as she quickly climbed down the tree and dug up Shane's gun and tucked it into her jeans at the small of her back.

No sooner than she had tucked the gun away, she was scrambling back up the tree to stay out of sight of the four man hunting party. Not wanting to give herself away, Adrian decided to continue to shadow Shane and just prayed that Daryl didn't pick up any of her tracks.

Shane led Daryl, Rick, and Glenn in the complete opposite direction in which Randall's body was. Shane was being very persistent about splitting up and looking for Randall. "Kid weighs a buck twenty-five wet, and you're tellin' us he got the jump on you?" Daryl said turning on Shane.

_'Smart as ever, Mr. Dixon.'_ she thought smiling to herself.

"I think that rock made us pretty even." Shane snapped, obviously not liking being questioned. "Alright. We'll split up. Daryl, you and Glenn cover the right, me and Shane will cover the left. I want him found." Rick said, turning and taking off with Shane.

Adrian decided to stop following Shane and head off towards where Randall's body was. Except when she got there, it was gone.

Adrian heard Daryl and Glenn walking up. Tired of hiding in the shadows for one day, she made herself known and just hoped that she didn't get shot for it.

"Daryl!" she whispered loudly. Daryl quickly spun in her direction and pointed a light in her face. Adrian quickly covered her eyes and cursed.

"Damn it, I'm really getting tired of people pointing lights in my fucking face." she growled, still seeing spots behind her eyelids from the flashlight. "Adrian." Glenn sighed.

"Fucking woman. What are you doing out here?" Daryl asked. But before she could answer, the trio heard a twig snap a few yards away. Daryl threw Glenn the light and readied his crossbow, hiding behind a tree. Glenn had his funny looking machete at the ready and Adrian silently unsheathed her knife.

A body came stumbling between the trees and Glenn shined the light in their face to reveal the face of Randall. Randall who was very much dead. And very much a walker. Because Glenn had been the one to shine the light on him, Randall went after Glenn, knocking him to the ground a half second before Daryl loosed an arrow, which flew off into the darkness.

Glenn had dropped his knife and was using everything he had to keep from being bit. Daryl dropped his crossbow and grabbed the back of Randall's clothes to get him off of Glenn. Randall turned to start attacking Daryl but Daryl gave him a hard shove that knocked Randall to the ground.

Randall fell to the ground and not three seconds later Glenn slammed his funny looking knife into Randall's skull, effectively killing him. Again.  
Glenn removed his knife and Daryl kneeled down next to the body and began to check him over.

"His neck is broken." Daryl said. Daryl then flipped him over and began to look for a bite or scratch mark. "He ain't got no bites." Daryl said confused. "Yeah, none that you can see." Glenn said in explanation. "No, I mean that he ain't got no bites anywhere. He died of a broken neck." Daryl said standing up.

"Come on. Let's get back to the house. Let everyone know that we found Randall." Adrian said looking at the dead body confused. They left the body where it was and headed back towards the farm house.

"So what the hell you doin' out here anyway? I been seein' your tracks all over the damn place out here." Daryl asked her. "What?!" Glenn exclaimed. "Why didn't you say anything about seeing her track out here?" he asked Daryl.

"We weren't lookin' for her, we were lookin' for Randall. And besides, her tracks weren't close to Randall's like Shane's was. Her's was a little ways away." Daryl said to Glenn. "What the hell was you doin' out here?" Daryl asked her.

"What I do best. Spying." she answered with a smirk.

The trio made it back to the house and everyone stood, anxious to hear something. Daryl looked around. "Rick and Shane ain't back?" Daryl asked no one in particular.

"No. I think they're still out there looking for Randall." someone answered. "We found Randall." Glenn said.

"Is he back in the shed?" Andrea asked. "He's dead. Was a walker." Daryl answered. "Did you find the walker that bit him?" Hershal asked. "That's the thing." Daryl started. "He wasn't bit. We checked. His neck was broken." he finished.

The room was quiet with confusion. Lori then walked up to Daryl. "Will you please go out there and find out what the hell is going on?" she asked him.

"Yeah." Daryl said heading for the door. "I'm going too." Adrian said speaking up for the first time. "I'm coming too." Adrian heard Kale say. She turned at the door to see her young partner.

Adrian had a stern look on her face but her eyes were soft. Kale was close enough for her to touch and she gently placed her hand on his face. "No Kale. I want you here. Safe and protecting the others. All the guns possible are needed here right now. Please." Adrian said, willing him to understand.

Adrian could see Kale searching her face and finally sighed. "Alright." he said stepping back. Daryl and Adrian stepped outside and heard the others on their heels to see them off.

Only what greeted them was not a welcome sight.

If anything it was blood chillingly frightening. It was a full moon that night and the bright light of the full moon was showing them a field full of walkers coming from the woods behind the barn.  
"Patrica, the lights." Hershal whispered to her. Maggie went inside and came back out with the groups gun bag.

"Kale. Get my bags. NOW!" she whispered harshly. Kale quickly walked inside and brought out both of her huge duffel bags. "Should we go back inside? Hide like we did from the walkers on the highway?" Glenn asked nervously.

"Unless there's a tunnel in the basement I don't know about, a herd that big will tear this place apart." Daryl said eyeballing the herd of walkers slowly making their way towards the house. Adrian was aware of conversation going on around her but wasn't paying much attention. She dug around in her bags to find any extra loaded clips and put at least two in each pocket.

"This is my farm. I'll die here." she heard Hershal say. The plan was to use the vehicles and take out as many walkers as possible, whether it be by bullet or by the vehicle point system. 'Wonder how the walker point system works exactly...' Adrian thought as she picked up her gun bag.

"Glenn." Adrian said handing him her bags. He looked at it with confusion as he took it. "There are extra shot guns and ammo in those bags. Take them with you." Adrian said turning away and seeking out Kale.

"Kale. Baby I want you to stay here with the women. Protect them any way possible but make sure you don't get bitten and come out alive. I can't loose you too. You remember everything that I taught you. Keep as calm as possible and don't panic. Panicing gets you killed." Adrian said as she framed his face with her hands.

Adrian gave him a soft look before she gave him a soft, chaste kiss on the lips.

"I love you every bit as much as Seth. You are exactly the kind of man I would have wanted him to grow up to be." she whispered as she took off over the railing and towards her bike.


	24. This frozen heart of mine

_**Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize. I only lay claim to Adrian and Kale.**_

**_AN: So I do realize that I just posted chapter 23 yesterday and as much as I would love to let y'all worry and stress for the next week about what is going to happen next, I can't help but post this chapter so soon. Mostly because this is a gift from me to you, my lovely readers, in celebration of me finally hitting S3 Ep. 1 in my story. _**

**_P.S. To those few reviewers that have left me messages telling me Adrian is Mary Sue, first off if you don't like it, don't read it and move on. Second, life is full of Mary Sues, not everyone can have 6 different personalities just so you can be happy. So swallow it and get over it._**

**_BTW I am sorry that it has taken me so long how to figure out how to space this thing properly. I have the breaks in my original copy but never realized it didn't do it when I posted it. Now, on with the story._**

Chapter 24

Adrian had been running for hours. The plan to defend the farm house turned out badly and everyone had abandoned trying to protect it. Adrian had lost sight of everyone after she had went off on foot to help fight off the walkers. Unlike Daryl's bike, it wasn't so easy for her to stop her bike, shoot off a few rounds and then kick up dust.

Adrian had run out of ammo long ago but had kept the empty guns instead of throwing them away. Guns weren't so easy to come by these days and knew that they could be useful in the future. Adrian had seen everyone drive off in different directions to get off the farm but had been too far from her bike and decided to strike out of foot.

Adrian knew the section of woods she was in would take her back to the highway and knew in the general direction that they had originally all stopped at. She figured that since everyone had broken off that they might all meet up there.

By the time dawn had approach Adrian was exhausted. She had been running for hours, taking a break to catch her breath only when absolutely necessary. Her legs and lungs were burning. Her arms her starting to shake with exhaustion. Her mouth and throat felt as dry as sandpaper. The sun had only been up for no more than two hours and if she didn't take a break soon, she just might pass out.

She hadn't seen a walker for the last few hours but she didn't want to take any chances. Adrian had just stopped to catch her breath when she noticed that the trees seemed like they were getting thinner up ahead. She hoped the highway was close because she couldn't hear anything over the sound of her heart pumping, her blood rushing, and her heavy breathing.

Adrian broke through the trees and almost wept with relief to see a guardrail. She had finally made it to the highway. And she could hear voices. Almost to her breaking point, Adrian crawled up the embankment and over the guardrail before anyone noticed her.

"Jesus Christ!" "Adrian!" "Oh my God!" Adrian heard it all but couldn't tell you who said what. Adrian went to go and take a step but her legs chose that moment to give out on her and her vision suddenly became a swirl of colors. She expected to hit the hard asphalt of the highway but was abruptly stopped by someone's arms.

Adrian had to blink a few times before her vision would clear to see who had caught her. When her vision finally cleared, Adrian seen a tired and bloody Rick above her. Soon others filled her vision as well.

Questions were thrown her way and she tried to answer but she was panting too hard to form a word, much less a sentence. When she was able to slightly focus, she noticed that her arms and legs were twitching with frequent muscle spasms.

After a minute Adrian caught her breath. "Where's Kale? Is he here?" she finally asked, still panting lightly. The group got quiet and Adrian didn't like it. "Where is he?" she asked again, but again, no one answered her. Her entire demeanor started to change in that moment.

Her eyes took on a wide eyed panicky look, she began to pant harder because of her rising panic, and her muscle spasms seemed like they were getting worse.

"Where is he?!" she finally yelled, knowing that it was probably dangerous to do such a thing in the open like that but she wanted a damn answer.

"He's ain't here. We don't know what happened to him." Daryl finally answered.

"He was with Andrea. They came to help me when I got cornered. Andrea went down but we don't know if she was bitten or not. We lost sight of him after that." Carol said. Adrian let is sink in that Kale wasn't with them. He was either bitten and turned into a walker or had gotten stranded at the farm after everyone took off.

The shock was too much for her system to handle after running all night on an empty stomach and started to become dehydrated. Her body finally did the only thing it could to help her cope. Her body shut down and her whole world went black.

Her body went limp in Rick's arms as silent tears she hadn't even known she was shedding ran down her face.

* * *

Adrian was violently jerked out of a dreamless sleep by the sound of a car horn. At first she was disoriented but faintly heard the sounds of car doors opening and closing.

Adrian remembered the farm being overrun with walkers. She remembered the barn catching fire. Being caught too far from her bike as everyone decided to abandon the farm. Running for miles and miles to get back to the highway and prayed that that was everyone else was going. Getting to the highway and then collapsing.

Then she remembered someone telling her that not everyone made it to the highway.

Andrea hadn't made it off the farm as far as any of them knew.

And neither had Kale.

Once that piece of information clicked into place Adrian felt herself start to panic.

Kale hadn't made it off the farm. Kale was gone. She had failed him. When she had first taken him in she had promised that she would watch over him. That as long as he was with her that she would make sure that he would be safe.

But in the end it turned out that she had lied to him. Just like she had ended up lying to Seth.

The more she thought about it the more she hurt. After a few minutes she turned onto her side, curled into as tight a ball as she could manage, threw her arms over her head as if to protect it, and screamed as loud and as hard as she could.

* * *

Everyone was in front of the small convoy and was about to do what they could to set up a small camp for the cold night ahead when they heard an ear piercing scream coming from behind them. Everyone started running towards the scream expecting to see a walker tearing into someone at the very least, but then realized that the screaming was coming from the back of the SUV where they had put Adrian.

Daryl and Glenn yanked open the back of the SUV with everyone standing behind them to see a small back ball with wild, fanned out red hair that continously kept letting out a horrible, bone chilling scream.

"Somebody shut her up!" Rick yelled in a loud whisper. Daryl and Glenn reached in at the same time, both talking to her to get her to be quiet. "Adrian you have to be quiet. There might be walkers around." Glenn said grabbing her leg.

"Fuckin' woman! Shut the hell up! You wanna bring another damn herd down on us?" Daryl growled, trying to get her head out of her arms.

"Fuck." Daryl growled shouldering his crossbow. "Glenn. Get in there an' get her on her back. She ain't gonna shut up willingly." Daryl said to the Asian boy. "What?!" Glenn asked, surprised. "Get in there an' help me with her damn arms!" Daryl snapped at him.

Glenn handed his shotgun over to Maggie who was standing behind him and crawled into the large space with Adrian and, with much help from Daryl, got her onto her back and tried to pull her arms away from her head. After a minute or two of fighting her extremely taunt muscles, Glenn and Daryl finally got her arms away from her face.

Daryl ended up grabbing both of her small wrists in his left hand and slammed them onto the floor on her left side and firmly placed his right hand over her still screaming mouth, his hand thankfully muffling the screams. After a minute or two of both Daryl and Adrian staying like that everyone ran off to gather firewood and such for the night.

Adrian continued to scream for what seemed like forever but it gradually turned from a desperate, painfilled scream to an angry, hellfired scream. Daryl could only take it for so long before he snapped.

"Alright! Fuck, when are you goin' to stop?! You been at this for the past fifteen fuckin' minutes! Now shut the fuck up or I'ma make you!" Daryl growled at her, his nerves already frayed.

Daryl felt her close her mouth and grit her teeth together. Then she opened her eyes and locked her bright, angry green eyes onto his annoyed blue ones.

"You even think a fuckin' bitin' me or some shit like that an' I'll knock your fuckin' lights back out." he growled at her, eyes narrowed.

Normally Daryl like her fire and temper, mostly when it wasn't directed at him, but this was different from what he had seen in her before.

This was a hard, bitter anger.

And in his opinion, that was one of the most dangerous kinds of anger.

* * *

They had been on the road for two weeks now.

Everyone was wary of Rick now since he had told the group that not only was everyone infected with the walker infection, but that he had killed Shane to keep everyone safe.

Both had come as small shocks to Adrian, but after the farm, it was as if she was a stranger to everyone.

After her screaming fit in the woods she had become cold, hard, and distant. It seemed as if she had gone into hardcore survival mode and only cared for herself most of the time, although if one paid close enough attention they could see that she was seemingly protecting not only Carl but also Lori in small ways.

A jacket here, her food when she refused to eat there, and other small things. Since the news of Kale's disappearance, it seemed as if Adrian was on full autopilot.

She was worse than Daryl used to be before be became the unoffical second in command, just with much less lip about it.

When walkers showed up and they had no choice but to fight, she fought the hardest and most violent. When supplies were needed and it was too dangerous to do it, she was the first one to volunteer. She never laughed anymore, she never smiled, and on most days ignored everyone in general. It was getting colder every day and warmer supplies were needed if they were going to make it.

They had picked up what was needed over the last two weeks from houses and such that they would try to hole up in but they needed to hit a real store. But to hit a store for everything that they would need was too dangerous.

Adrian had volunteered to lead the run but refused to bring any more than two or three people with her. She had chosen Daryl, Glenn, and T-Dog to go with her into Bass Pro shop that she had found a few miles away.

At first Rick had refused but Adrian had told him point blank that she was going whether he approved of the run or not.

The night after the farm Rick had declared that from then on his word was law, but every now and then Adrian would fight him about his decisions. Rick didn't like it but he knew that at that point that they needed her more than she needed them. She had been doing just fine on her own before they showed up and he knew she could do it again.

Adrian, Glenn, T-Dog, and Daryl stood a few yards away from the store, hidden by some abandoned vehicles in the parking lot. "Alright." she said turning to them.

"Everyone knows what we need. Any warm clothing you can find, flashlights, lanterns, sleeping bags, anything you know will be useful. Dixon, I know you're probably gonna head for the hunting section so gather any ammo you can find while you're getting more arrows or whatever." she said in her now usual flat, emotionless tone, eyeing everyone to make sure that they understood.

Adrian turned back around making sure that the coast was clear. "Alright boys. Let's hit the ground runnin'." she said right before she took off towards the doors.

* * *

Most of the store had been picked clean but there was plenty of what they were looking for except for ammo. That section hadn't been picked clean, but there hadn't been as much as they would have liked. Four hours later the small scavenge team showed back up at the small house they were holing up in with a beautiful bounty of everything that they would need for a while other than food and water.

Adrian had trouble sleeping these days and had told everyone that she would takeover watch duty that night. It was midmorning and freezing outside when Rick walked outside to see Adrian propped up on the railing looking out for any danger.

"Adrian." Rick said lowly. The only reaction that Adrian made to his presence was a slight tick of her jaw.

"You need to sleep. Daryl tells me that you haven't slept in almost two days. You can't keep pushing like this. You do and you're likely to collapse. I need you as healthy as possible right now." Rick told her taking a few steps towards the mostly mute red headed woman.

"I'm fine Rick. Go back inside. And while you're at it you can tell your little tattle tail to mind his own business." she said, dismissing the man.

"Daryl didn't tell me much that I didn't already know. That everyone doesn't already know. You hardly eat when we do manage to find food, you barely sleep and when you do it's no more than a few hours at most. You can't keep pushing yourself like this. It's not healthy." Rick tried again.

Finally fed up with the lecture, Adrian whipped her head around to coldly stare at the older man. "The world isn't healthy Rick. Fucking dead people walkin' around trying to fucking eat us. Eat your son, your pregnant wife. You wanna wory about someone's health, worry about your wife. Deal with your own fucking problems of keeping everyone in that house alive and leave me the fucking hell alone." she growled, hard green eyes narrowed into tiny slits.

Rick sighed in frustration and stomped back inside. That woman was so maddening it made him want to rip his hair out most days!

* * *

They had been on the road for a full month now and had found another small, dingy farm house to hole up in for as long as they could get away with it. They were in desperate need of food so Adrian and Daryl had decided to go out and try to find some kind of big game to bring back.

They were lucky to find a small pack of four decently sized wild boar and managed to kill them before they realized what happened. They had a bit of a time hauling them back to the house. It took them a little while to find a good place to skin the boars so that none of the blood would attract the walkers straight to them.

After cutting up all of the meat they brought it back to the house and had a small feast that night. T-Dog had discovered what turned out to be a smoker, which turned out great for them so they could smoke the meat and have food for a few more days.

Adrian still gave most of her portion of food to either Carl or Lori but no one said anything about it. Adrian tried to avoid sleep as much as possible because she hadn't had anything but nightmares since leaving the farm.

It wasn't so much the nightmares that she was afraid of as to who would show up in her nightmares.

More often than not thought, it was Seth. Yelling and screaming at her that she had lied to him.

And then shortly after Kale would show up and accuse her of the same thing.

* * *

**_AN: Let me know what you think, an if you didn't like how the chapter was written out, I don't blame you. I probably could have done a little better. _**


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